


A Better Legacy

by HerAld_90



Series: A Better World [2]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, F/M, Original Character Death(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Terrorism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-07-28 16:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 67,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7648117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerAld_90/pseuds/HerAld_90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Judy and Nick Wilde-Hopps: veteran ZPD officers beaten down by time and work. Bethany Blaine: relative newcomer to the ZPD, still fresh and wide-eyed. Jack Savage: spy, killer, destroyer. As Zootopia works to overcome the terror inflicted upon it by the Wendigo Killers, these mammals and more will find themselves in a fight for a better legacy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jack liked driving the streets of Zootopia at night. He liked the glimmer of the city lights all around him as he navigated his sensible little truck through the streets of Downtown and Savannah Central, the sight of couples taking romantic strolls. He liked driving over the speed limit, only by a few miles an hour, not enough to be thought worth it by the police but enough to put the fear of God into the rare pedestrian. He liked the freedom to roll down his windows and sing along at the top of his tiny rabbit lungs to Marena and the Diamonds.

"Primadonna girl, yeah, all I ever wanted was the world!  
Can't help that I need it all,  
The primadonna life the rise, the fall.  
You say that I'm kinda difficult,  
But it's always someone else's fault.  
Gotcha wrapped around my finger, babe,  
You can count on me to misbehave."

A pair of otters at a crosswalk looked scandalized as he came to a stop beside them. As he watched them pass in front of him he flashed the lady in the violet sweater an ear-to-ear smile. She eeped and sped up, practically dragging her husband to the other side of the road. Jack watched them go until they turned a corner out of sight, before laughing and driving on.

"Primadonna girl fill the void up with celluloid,  
Take a picture, I'm with the boys  
Get what I want because I ask for it,  
Not because I'm really that deserving of it.  
Living life like I'm in a play  
In the lime light I want to stay  
I know I've got a big ego,  
Not really sure why it's such a big deal, though."

The turnoff for Jack's apartment came up. He slowed and turned right into the car park, rolling the windows shut as he did so. The song ended just as he reached the second level and the first available parking spot fit for his truck. He turned the radio off before another song could start and made a beeline straight for the spot. "Woof, this place is way busier than it used to be..."

Thankfully the apartment complex was built primarily with smaller mammals in mind, so it wasn't too long a walk to the closest set of glass doors. Carefully balancing the trio of grocery bags in his arms as he walked, it only took a moment to get in and get started down the hall to his apartment.

"Let's see, 311, 312, 313, here we—"

Jack paused, ears up and nose twitching at the sight of his apartment door just barely ajar. He glanced up and down the hallway once, glad for the thick green carpeting rendering his footsteps silent as he slowly set his grocery bags down. His hand went to his pocket and for a moment, thoughts of calling the ZPD filled his head. He quickly shook these away and pushed the door open the rest of the way. The room beyond lay completely dark, save the rectangle of light from the doorway.

"Hmm... I wonder what will happen." Stepping in, Jack closed the door behind him. The next second the lights flickered on and all Hell broke loose.

The first, a weasel, lunged from the right with a bat. Jack ducked the swing, letting it bounce off the door frame as he punched right into his assailant's liver. The weasel seized up at once, letting Jack grab her shoulders and throw her at the second assailant, a hare, mid-swing of bat.

CRACK.

The weasel fell limp to the floor, neck bent at just the wrong angle. Jack jumped over her and slammed into the hare as he pulled back for another swing, ramming him backward into a wall-mounted mirror.

CRASH.

Glass shards fell all around them. Before the hare assailant could try for another swing, Jack grabbed his head in both hands and slammed it against the wall behind the mirror, then slammed again, again and again until the green paint was chipped and smeared red and the bat fell from limp hands. Then Jack slammed the head against the wall one more time, delighting in the CRUNCH of a breaking skull and the sudden gush of blood staining white fur red. Only then did he let go, relaxing back on his knees and taking several deep breaths.

A soft footfall perked his ears. Jack turned and saw a third assailant, a bobcat, standing next to the coffee table at the center of the room, her knees shaking and her toes kneading a suspicious wet patch in the carpet beneath her.

At the sight of him turning to her she whimpered and dropped her crowbar, hands going up in a pleading gesture. "Please, we were only told—”

He moved fast, faster than he knew any bobcat could react to, jumping over the bodies of her fallen comrades to latch his legs around her waist. The glass shard in his hand glittered as he STABBED it once, twice, three times into her neck, splattering his face in blood.

A THUMP rang through the apartment as the body fell to the floor, and then all was silent as the snow drifting down out past the bay windows dominating the far wall. Jack let the bloodied shard fall from his grip and stared down at his handiwork, taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart.

"Heh... Heh heh... oh God, it's in my mouth, it's in my mouth!"

He shot to his feet and half-ran, half-stumbled around the corpses and across the living room, throughout the bedroom to the adjoining bathroom, gagging and spitting all the while. Stomach contents demanding their release at the sickeningly sweet gunk in his mouth, he paused just long enough to hit the lights before turning the sink faucet on full blast and dunking his face under the stream.

Glub-glub-glub-glub—

Spit.

Glub-glub-glub-glub—

Spit.

Glub-glub-glub-glub—

Jack pulled his head out from under the water, panting for breath as he shut the faucet off and grabbed for the nearest washcloth. "Blood... in the mouth... not nearly... drunk enough for that..."

He threw the soiled washcloth to the floor, followed moments later by his black jacket and white button-up shirt, both as drenched in blood as his face had been. They could wait for later, when there were some reds to throw in the wash with them.

"Hmm, no, better let a professional cleaner handle them..."

Jack spared a moment to check himself over in the bathroom mirror before turning and striding back through the bedroom to the living room. Three dead bodies, two of them rapidly being enveloped in pools of their own blood, greeted him right where he'd left them. Glass, too, littered the apartment floor, glittering in the carpet like so many alluring diamonds. "Hm, yeah, definitely a professional cleaner."

His phone was still in his jacket. He went back for it, flipped through his contacts for the cleaner crew he knew, and called. As it rang he worked his way through the bodies and glass to the front door, where his groceries still waited in the hallway beyond. They were warm now, warmer than they should have been, but Jack supposed that warm was still better than blood-splattered.

Click.

"Koslov here. Is the job done?"

"Nope!" Phone in one hand and grocery bag in the other, Jack grinned to himself as he hopped and tiptoed his way past the glass, through a door along the left wall to the apartment's kitchen. "And I gotta say, Mr. Big must be running out of people if these three were the best he could send against good ol' Jack Savage."

A sigh carried across the line as Jack set the bag on the kitchen countertop and went back for another. "I'll send cleaner right away. Last few days have been... stressful in Zootopia. Very, very stressful. News you were coming back caught everyone flatfooted."

"Flatfooted? Was that a bunny joke?" Setting the last bag down, Jack opened his fridge and started putting away the assorted vegetables and drinks. "And gosh, stress in Zootopia? What, did Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde discover another government conspiracy?"

"In a manner of speaking... it's big, Savage. Real big."

Something in the old polar bear's voice, a touch of worry Jack had never heard from him before, made the rabbit pause in his restocking efforts and turn his full attention to the conversation. "What happened while I was away, Koslov?"

"Like I said, the cleaners are on their way. Standard fee. Just check the news."

Click.

Jack looked down at his phone, eyes narrowing, grip tightening. Koslov had never hung up on him before. Koslov had never DARED to hang up on him before. "I was only gone five months..."

The rest of the groceries forgotten, Jack pulled up the website for Zootopia’s premiere newspaper on his phone, scrolling through until he got to that day’s digital edition of the day’s major headline.

_CITY MOURNS HERO COPS!_

_Police Sergeant Judy Hopps, 30, and Police Detective Nick Wilde, 38, went on extended medical leave from the Zootopia Police Department this morning after injuries sustained in the detainment of corrupt police officer Calisto Delgato._

_Announced via an official ZPD press release, the news comes as little surprise to many, as Hopps and Wilde spent the last three weeks in intensive care at Zootopia Mercy Hospital._

_"It's a rotten shame to lose such fine officers," said ZPD Chief Bogo when approached for comment on the announcement. "Especially in addition to the many cops arrested in connection with the Wendigo Killer. However, I can assure you that the ZPD can and will continue to effectively maintain law and order within Zootopia."_

_Others remain more hopeful._

_"I've been friends with Judy since her first day on the force," said one officer who wished to remain anonymous. "It's a matter of when, not if. The moment that bunny's got a clean bill of health, you can bet she'll be clamoring to rejoin—"_

Jack scrolled away from the article, searching for context as he followed the trail of key words. Wendigo Killer. Taylor Monahan. Corrupt ZPD cabals. Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, ZPD heroes, on medical leave and away from a city grown uncomfortable with them and their dubiously-legal actions.

“This… THIS…”

Jack snarled, shutting the news app and slamming his phone onto the kitchen counter. He clenched his fists and breathed deep, in and out, fighting a losing battle against his rage. “I leave for a nice little infiltration vacation to bring down an Arabbitian government from the inside… and a gaggle of power-drunk coppers think they can send MY city into a state of utter terror? Slaughter MY citizens? Make… make God-damn JUDY LAVERNE HOPPS the most notorious rabbit the country’s ever known as if I don’t even exist!?”

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Jack started pacing the length of the kitchen, clenched fists now trembling as his eyes roamed for something, anything, to HURT. “How dare they? How dare they! I am no bushy-tailed hare from carrot-choked Podunk! I am Jack Savage! I am THE SAVAGE! I, I—”

Through the still-open kitchen door, he spied the three corpses cooling in his living room. Jack stopped at once, snarl turning into a grin that threatened to split the black stripes in his cheeks as he thought, and thought, and schemed.

Jack picked up his phone from the counter and dialed a new number, one he’d only dialed twice before, one reserved for only ideas with the highest body counts.

The phone on the other end rang five times before someone answered. Jack spoke at once, trying to keep his grin out of his voice. “I want to destroy Zootopia.”

“Uh…” The voice on the other end of the line was immediately unfamiliar, low and soft with the most bizarre southern twang. “Ah’m mighty sorry, sir, but Grey’s Pies & Bakery doesn’t do any alcoholic treats. Also, we closed an hour ago.”

Jack blinked, taking a moment to restart his thought process and hit END CALL. He waited a minute and then dialed the number slower, brow furrowed as he focused on remembering it right. “8… 6… 7… 5… 3…”

This time the phone on the other end rang only twice before answering. “Mr. Savage. The only mammal I’ll tolerate calling me at this hour. Good to see you’re back from your vacation. I assume you’ve seen the news?”

The voice coming across the phone was deep and husky, yet undeniably feminine. It sent shivers down Jack’s spine and turned his legs to jelly. It was the voice of one who could crush him in an instant, shatter his body and scatter his legacy to the winds. He loved the voice for it, and the voice’s owner.

“You assume right, Miss White.” Jack’s legs carried him out of the kitchen, into the living room and to the bay window looking out onto Zootopia beyond. The glimmer of the city lights, the ant-like couples taking their romantic strolls, the cops out on nighttime patrol, every little thin veneer of civilization, it all made Jack sick to his stomach. “And I have a business proposition you might be interested in. How would you like Zootopia on a silver platter?”

“… I’m listening.”


	2. Chapter 2

15 months later…

ZPD Officer Bethany Blaine hurt. She hurt like every bone in her body had been shattered, every muscle torn, every organ squeezed by an elephant. Every inch of her battered body screamed for the sweet embrace of death.

Instead, Beth forced her eyes open. She found herself lying on her back, staring up at a perfect blue sky rapidly getting obscured by thick plumes of smoke and ash. She saw fluffy white clouds up beyond the smoke, like little sheep, and a helicopter turning in jerky circles.

Suddenly, a sense of hearing returned as sound crashed back in on Beth, the crackle and roar of flames, the screams of the pained and terrified, the crunch of breaking stone and metal. She sat up with a jerk and beheld all around her a scene of chaos. Mammals ran in all directions, vehicles up and down the Sahara Square street overturned and on fire, storefronts blasted apart, glass littering the cracked and scorched asphalt as far as Beth could look in any direction. Glass and too many bodies.

“What… I… I don’t…” The Arctic hare groped blindly for her radio, horror mounting as she felt countless bits of shrapnel peppering her bulletproof vest, coming who-knew how close to piercing through and turning her insides to mush. It was all she could do not to vomit at the thought.

“HELP! SOMEONE HELP! DADDY!”

Beth jerked from her downwardly spiraling thoughts, jumping to her feet at once and perking her ears to scan for the source of the cry. Suddenly steadied, her hands found her radio and she clicked it on without further fuss. “Dispatch, this is Officer Blaine. Don’t know how long I was out but we have major destruction on—” she glanced to the street signs, barely visible through the smoke “—West Elephantine, Sahara Square. Multiple civilian casualties, fires raging.”

“10-4, Blaine, emergency vehicles are en route, McHorn, Francine, Wolford, the Fangmeyers, and Bogo are closing in to assist.”

A cough shook Beth’s body as a sudden breeze sent hot smoke her way. “Co-copy that, Clawhau—”

“SOMEONE HELP! PLEASE!”

Beth perked, ears and eyes shooting westward down the street. She took off at once, dancing around fields of glass sparkling in the firelight and leaping a fallen lamppost. Past a pair of limos smashed together into a barely-recognizable wreck by whatever force had wrought this havoc, she stopped to scan again for the source of the cries for help, at first seeing nobody. “Hello? I am Officer Blaine, I’m here to help!”

“Over here!”

She saw them then, through the smoke and eye-aching light of the fires. A pair of shrews near the sidewalk, one older and on his back and bleeding, the other younger and crouched beside him, trembling with tears. “Please help Daddy!”

In two hops Beth was there beside them, bent over to shield from the random bits of glass still falling from some of the surrounding skyscrapers. Up close the pair looked even worse, a pebble-sized piece of glass leaving the older shrew with more blood outside his body than inside, while one of the younger shrew’s arms looked broken. Blood, ash, and fire had marred whatever expensive fineries they’d been wearing beyond recognition.

“Sir, ma’am, emergency vehicles are nearly here! Please remain calm as I move you to—”

A groan of over-stressed metal sounded from the nearest shattered vehicle, a delivery truck only a yard away. Beth looked at it, eyes widening as she read the writing on the side.

BOB’S BIG BOOMS: FIREWORKS FOR ANY OCCASION!

“… shit. Shit shit shitshitshitshitshi—” With all the care she could manage, given the circumstances, Beth scooped the pair of rodents into her paws, cradling them close to her chest as she ran, heedless now of the glass piercing her feet, ran fast as she could past raging fires and over downed lampposts toward the sight of distant but rapidly nearing ambulances. She heard the younger shrew screaming her head off, something Beth too would probably be doing were she not fighting for every breath in the thickening smoke. “—shitshitshitshitshitshi—”

BOOOM.

Now she could scream, as a wave of heat and pressure threw her off her feet and sent her careening through the air. She flew, flew, then fell, hitting the pavement half a dozen yards off from the main scene of destruction and rolling an additional five feet, not stopping until she none-too-gently collided with the wheel of a giraffe van.

“Ow… owww…” For the second time in recent memory, Beth hurt like she was dying as she forced her eyes open and her body up into a sitting position. She coughed, ears perking as one of the passing emergency vehicles peeled off from the pack to careen to a stop next to her. As the doors of the ambulance flew open and paramedics began hopping out, Beth looked down again at the pair of shrew cradled close to her chest. To her relief, neither looked any worse for wear than when she’d first found them, the woman even cognizant enough to meet her eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Beth found herself saying, even as an armadillo paramedic began helping her to her feet, shouting out whatever questions his job needed him to. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay now.”

***

“Terror reigned in Sahara Square this morning, the sight of what authorities are calling the worst terrorist act Zootopia has seen since the Night Howler incident eight years ago.”

Quickly, quickly enough that most watching the TV wouldn’t catch it, Peter Moosebridge glanced over at his longtime snow leopard cohost, worry passing through him as she shifted more than usual in her seat, clenched the papers in front of her tighter than needed. She had family in Sahara Square.

“While no official death count has been released by the authorities so far, estimates have put it anywhere between 24 and 40 as mammals struggle to get in contact with friends and family. Those injured by the attack have reached 60 and counting.”

Peter took over the report from there, keeping his expression cool even as he yearned for the cameras to turn off so he could give his friend the hug she so desperately needed. “In light of this morning’s events, Chief Bogo of the ZPD has issued a general emergency alert to all Districts, advising them to increase patrols and be ready for further attacks. When asked for a statement on these actions, the chief had little to say.”

_“Zootopia’s seen more than its fair share of trouble in recent years, from the Night Howlers, to the Wendigo Killers, and now this, in an election year of all times. All I have time to say is that it will no longer be seen as ZPD policy to stay on the defensive during these crises. We ARE working, and we WILL protect you! That is all!”_

“Despite Chief Bogo’s reassurances,” spoke Fabienne Growley, taking over the report once more, “some are calling into question the ZPD’s ability to handle this crisis, especially in light of the revelation of extensive police corruption 15 months ago and the drop in manpower that followed. While several of those currently campaigning for the mayoral office continue to give their support, particularly surprise up-and-comer and former popstar Gazelle, current mayor Rosalind Swinton seems to have changed her stance following this most recent criminal attack.”

_“I’m not saying that Chief Bogo has failed this city. I would never say that. He has faithfully served the people of Zootopia for decades. But that is precisely the point. The old cape buffalo has earned his retirement a dozen times over by now. It might be time for him to take that well-deserved rest before he really does slip up._

_“Zootopia is changing. Hurting, and scared, but always and gradually changing for the better. If recent events have shown us anything, maybe it’s time for our law enforcement to change too.”_

***

Five mammals in fine suits sat around three sides of a table in a backroom of a non-descript warehouse in the Canal District, watching the news on a laptop at the fourth, unoccupied side. As the images of the carnage from that morning played, each of them, the steel-tusked boar, the scarred polar bear, the lioness, the pangolin, and the tanuki, bared their teeth and bristled. The crime lords of Zootopia were vicious and murderous, but they all agreed on one rule above all else: no wanton destruction among civilians.

“Do we…” The pangolin coughed and licked her snout, claws twisting at the necklace of pearls wrapped through them. Anjali didn’t like them all meeting in one place like this, not with the horror on TV, not with Mr. Big absent. “Do we know who committed this… atrocity?”

“No,” growled Sarabi. The lioness looked on the verge of standing and marching out of the room. “Not a blasted clue. No warning, no signs of odd shipments, no strange faces where they didn’t belong. Nothing.”

“We should call off all conflict between our people and the police.” Koslov’s voice remained stony and cold as ever, the only aspect of the polar bear that didn’t betray his anger. “At least until the authorities find the perpetrators. I would not sit well with being the distraction that allows another event like… this, to happen.”

“Oh, shut it with that malarkey!” The boar slammed a fist against the table, hard enough to shake the laptop closed. He glared around at the rest of them, lips curled into a sneer. “This could be a goldmine before us! We’re looking at weeks, maybe months where the ZPD will be too busy to even glance our way! This is an unprecedented chance to reclaim lost ground in Zootopia!”

Sarabi hissed, half-standing from her seat to bare her fangs at the boar. “You make one move like that, Balor, and you can expect no mercy from my people!”

“Nor mine,” said Koslov, though he remained sitting. Probably a good move, for the guards of the various crime lords standing around the room’s walls looked unable to handle any more tension.

“We will do nothing,” spoke the tanuki at last, staring both lioness and boar down, “until we are all present and accounted for.”

“That’s right!” Anjali stood up straight again, having rolled herself halfway into a ball the moment the shouting started. “Old Takei is absolutely right! Where is that blasted Mr. Big?”

“In Heaven, with luck.”

A flurry echoed through the room as ten handguns, from bear-sized to hare-sized, were drawn from pockets and leveled at the main door to the backroom. The next moment a rabbit of average size strode through the swinging doors. He wore a black three-piece suit and tie to match the black stripes across his cheeks and ears, the buttons undone and the tie loose about his neck like a noose.

Behind him strode a white wolf in a similar suit, though buttoned and tight to a professional degree.

For a moment there was silence as the two groups eyed each other. Then Koslov banged a fist against the table and snarled. “Guns down, all of you. This is Babayka, the Boogie Man. Jack Savage.”

As quickly as they had been drawn, every gun was thrown down, their wielders taking the smallest steps toward the room’s back exit, readying to leave their crime lord charges at the bunny’s mercy.

For his part, Jack Savage smiled and nodded to Koslov. “Always good to be remembered. How’s the son, Boris?”

The polar bear swallowed and crossed himself. “Morris is… doing fine. Moved to new school this year, making many friends.”

“Good! Good…” Jack smiled wider, eyes darting around to the other crime lords. Someone coughed and Jack cleared his throat, leaning back on his heels. “You know, I honestly didn’t think this business offer through past that sweet little entrance of mine. I was certain someone was going to start shooting and I’d have to kill all of you. Glad that didn’t happen.”

A moment’s shuffling noise as all the guards took another step toward the back exit. One of them, a honey badger, took three. Anjali eeped and clenched her pearls tighter. Sarabi and Balor looked caught between the urges to fight or flee. Old Takei glanced around at the guards and gripped his cane, and the sword within, tighter. “Yes, your entrance. Are you saying Mr. Big is… dead?”

To this the rabbit smiled and flourished his Molex wristwatch around for all to see. “As of 7 minutes ago, the dear Mr. Big passed away from blood loss en route to Zootopia Memorial, as witnessed by his only daughter, Zootopia Police Officer Bethany Blaine, and three very well paid paramedics.”

The others did little to hide their gazes moving to Koslov. All knew there had been a time when he and Mr. Big had been inseparable, the picture of loyalty between don and soldier. The polar bear ignored the looks, expression neutral as he leaned back in his chair. “Why have you done this?”

“Because Mr. Big grew too soft,” said Jack at once, dragging a chair over to the unoccupied side of the table and standing atop it to be better seen by those present. “Because his daughter had him two steps away from going clean and handing EVERYTHING to the ZPD. Because during the rules of Mayor Lionheart and, heh, Mayor Bellwether, the ZPD saw unprecedented growth and expansion, growth that Mayor Swinton has done little to undo. But now, thanks to the beautiful fiasco with the Wendigo Killer and the retirements in all but name of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, they are weak. Public opinion has made them VULNERABLE. The city is RIPE for the crime lords to reassume their old positions of authority.”

Looks passed between the five crime lords. Looks of fear, treachery, and bloodlust. Sarabi leaned forward in her seat, claws tapping at the table. “We’re listening.”

This time, Jack’s smile did not reach his Arctic eyes. “Good. Now, if you’ll just send your bodyguards out, my friend Miss Black here has a beautiful business proposal.”

***

Beth sat slumped in a Zootopia Memorial waiting room chair, watching her bandaged feet dangle inches from the ground and trying desperately, oh so desperately, to forget the day so far.

“You did all you could,” the nurses had said, their empty platitudes falling flat as they pulled her along some random hospital hallway, away from the poor shrew sobbing over her father, away from her failure. “We need to check you for any injuries now.”

Minor smoke inhalation. Slight burns from hot ash and sparks in the air. Lacerations from running across glass. Bruising from multiple impacts, but nothing burst or broken. Overall, the aardvark doctor had said, there was nothing to keep her in the hospital for, or even keep her from returning to work, if she felt like it. Hours wasted to tell her she was the luckiest hare in the world that day.

Somewhere in the waiting room a TV droned on. Nothing on the morning’s terrors, for which all present were grateful, only some interview with the biggest weasel in town nowadays, Duke Weaselton. Questions and praise for his new bestseller, _Hopps & Robbers: How One Rabbit’s Rampage Ruined My Life._

Sighing, Beth moved her gaze from her feet to the ruined piece of chest armor beside her on the oversized seat. Her eyes traced once more the numerous pits and scratches in the vest, the shrapnel that had yet to be dug out, each one of which could have ended her life had it possessed only a bit more force. Lucky, horribly lucky. Yet even dressed in the rest of her police uniform, even as damaged as it was, Beth felt naked without the vest. Damn lucky.

“You’ll go crazy if you keep that up, Blaine.”

Beth jerked to attention at the gruff, familiar voice, only stumbling a little as she jumped from her seat and snapped off a salute. “Chief Bogo, Sir!”

“At ease, officer.” The cape buffalo looked even greyer than usual that day, shoulders drooped with the weight of the world and wrinkles where Beth was certain there had been none at that morning’s bullpen meeting. Yet his gaze was still sharp as he glanced from her to the vest on the chair and back again. A sigh left him as he shook his head. “Like I said, Blaine, you’ll go crazy if you keep that up.”

“Sir, I—”

“Every officer has that moment where the only reason they’re able to walk away is sheer, dumb luck.” Bogo fixed her in place with his eyes, gaze stern but not unkind. “Some don’t have that moment until years into their career, others experience it their very first day. You’re hardly special in that regard, Blaine.”

“Sir…” Beth looked away, to her vest, to the TV, to her clenched fists, anywhere but at her commanding officer. “I failed out there, Sir. I… everything just went to Hell out there and I, I promised that shrew that everything would be okay, but… but the other one died anyway, died practically in my own hands and I couldn’t, I—”

A warm, heavy touch to her shoulder shook Beth from her spiraling thoughts. She looked up at Bogo again, almost flinching from the look in his eyes. “You did your best and saved one of them. That’s all any cop can hope for, sometimes. The weight of the dead rests on the villains here, Blaine, not on you or anyone else.”

Beth didn’t know if she could believe that quite yet, but she nodded along all the same. Bogo then sighed and pulled back, looking from her to the doors that would lead out to the wider world. “There’s not much to be done at the moment but sift through the wreckage and field the media, neither of which you’re all that fit for right now. Go home, Blaine. Rest, eat junk food, cuddle with your partner while watching the sunset. I promise there’ll be more than enough work for you when you get back.”

She almost protested, almost spoke that there had to be something, anything, she could help with. But then her eye caught sight of the mangled vest once more, the armor scarred and broken, and every protest fled her. “Yes, Sir. At once.”

***

Beth did not go home. Not at once, at least. A taxi took her from Zootopia Memorial to the Zootopia Police Department, sharing brief words of kindness with Clawhauser before grabbing the keys to her personal patrol jeep.

From there she drove. Aimlessly at first, through streets and Districts, watching the people go on in their lives, some hurting and grieving, others helping however they could. She saw the damage from the bomb, an entire Sahara Square block blasted apart, still scorched and smoking in too many places. She saw signs in storefronts advertising donation efforts, proclaiming free food or clothes or simple words of comfort for those affected by the attack.

Zootopia, hurt only hours before, had set well on the path to healing the damage.

From there Beth’s path took her out of the city proper, to the outskirts of the less-ordered wilderness separating Zootopia from Bunnyburrow. She drove up to the top of a long-familiar hill, following tracks worn into the grass and dirt by only her and one other, parked, and turned off the engine. She got out, hopped up to the hood of her car, and there sat with ears folded and the day’s weight settling over her.

“Hello, beautiful.”

Before her, the grand skyline of Zootopia stood like the world’s most magnificent castle. Its towers glittered and shone in the light of the slowly setting sun, a cacophony of light and life against which the horror of the late morning was hardly even a blot. From there even her hare ears could not make out more than a general impression of noise from the city, the honking of cars, the rumble of the trains, the CLANK and CLASH and VROOM and CRACKLE of construction equipment, stores, billboards, stomping feet, banging doors—

Beth closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again, letting it all wash over her. She couldn’t say for how long she sat there, watching as Zootopia gradually lit up a thousand different colors with the sun’s passing. Whatever concert the Mammalia Stadium was hosting that night had been going on for at least three songs, though, when her ears caught the sound of another car driving up the hill, its banging, choking engine as familiar to her as the car’s driver. She smiled and continued looking out over the city, waiting with bated breath as the newcomer parked, got out, and stomped over. The scent of veggie tacos from Beth’s favorite restaurant came with her.

“Mind if I join you up there, officer?”

It took all her effort not to giggle like a schoolgirl out on her first date. “Can’t think of any laws against it.”

The jeep bounced as the newcomer heaved herself up onto it. This time Beth couldn’t hold in the squeal as she was pulled into her girlfriend’s warm, furry lap. “Eep! Honey, stooop!”

“Hush now,” said the honey badger, setting the to-go bag from Tofu Tico into Beth’s lap and hugging her close, head resting between the Arctic hare’s ears. “I saw the news today. YOU were on the news today. You’ve got eight hours of snuggling and smooches, doctor’s orders.”

Warmth flooded Beth at this, a blush lighting up her cheeks and ears. Deciding not to fight it, she sighed and snuggled up against the larger mammal. Right there, she knew, the horrors could not reach her. “It was an awful day.”

“Tell me about it.”  
“Mmm, was right in the middle of it… what did you do today?”

“Got great blog post material. Infiltrated a meeting between all of Zootopia’s crime lords where they planned to take over the city.”

“Mmm, that’s nice…”

A minute passed of comfortable silence. Then Beth’s brain caught up with her ears and she sat up, neck popping as she whipped her head around to stare at Honey. “Wait, WHAT!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Patience, friends. Judy and Nick will enter into the story soon enough. Just need to get some things set up first.


	3. Chapter 3

Chief Bogo had many, many long years of dealing with politicians. Decades of experience. From the barely-there whisperyness of Mayor Hathi, to the bumbling incompetence of Mayor Drump, to the boisterous grandstanding of Mayor Lionheart, to the conniving kindness of Mayor Bellwether, Bogo had long grown used to politicians and their conniving, scheming, plotting, and snarling to get their way. As police chief, the connection between City Hall and the ZPD, there were ALWAYS mayors trying to get their way with something. It came with the job.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE INVESTIGATION WILL CONTINUE!?”

But then there came Mayor Swinton, who someone always seemed to know more than she should, always seemed to be right ahead of popular opinion, and always seemed able to get under Bogo’s hide, even in the relative security of his office.

“What I mean is that there are still too many oddities concerning this morning’s attack to simply open and shut it like you want. My duty is to the public safety—”

Mayor Swinton ceased her pacing the width of Bogo’s office and whirled to face him across his desk, the smartly-dressed pig looking ready to throw something. “What is there left to even investigate!? You said yourself, the blast centered close to Mr. Big’s limo, and out of an entire busy Sahara Square block, his is the only major death to occur!”

Bogo clenched his fists at this, doing his best not to snarl at the mammal in the room who could fire him as easily as blink. Instead he turned to look out his office’s window for a long moment, letting the lights shining in the night calm his blood. “There were 25 reported casualties, Mayor. They’re ALL major deaths in my book.”

Swinton rolled her eyes, huffed, and resumed pacing. “Oh please. You’ve got too many grey hairs to think that’s how things work. The first mayoral election after the ZPD gets gutted to the bone by inner corruption, and suddenly the most powerful crime boss in Zootopia gets killed? It doesn’t take a genius to recognize a mob hit.”

Bogo’s phone began buzzing on his desk. He ignored it for the moment and glared daggers at the pig in front of him. “That’s no reason not to look further! If the mobs are acting up, then we need to look deeper to insure nothing like this happens again! The citizens need—”

“The citizens,” said Swinton, speaking over him, “need to be told City Hall and the ZPD have everything under control! That they can feel safe going to bed at night! That there is no freaking reason for that tone-deaf harlot to have a 13-point lead ahead of me in the polls!”

The phone continued buzzing. Bogo bashed the IGNORE button and went back to glaring at Swinton. “You will not put this city in danger with a tantrum over Gazelle looking ready to be our next mayor!”

For a moment the pig looked ready to continue screaming. But then she deflated, all fight seeming to leave her. She brushed her platinum-blonde bangs from her eyes, straightened her rose-red dress, and opened the office door. “Just make sure the people of Zootopia feel safe and that nothing interferes with the election, understand? Or else I might follow San Dingo’s example and start looking for alternative means of law enforcement.”

The door slammed shut, leaving Bogo finally alone in his office. The moment he was certain Swinton wasn’t coming back he groaned and slumped deeper into his chair, hands coming up to rub away the aching migraine in his forehead. His eyes went to the clock on the wall and he recoiled at the late hour. “I’m getting too old for this…”

The phone on the desk began buzzing again. Bogo sighed and grabbed it, answering without looking to see who was calling. “Chief Bogo speaking.”

“Chief! Oh thank crackers you picked up this time! Please tell me you’re still in your office!”

“Unfortunately,” he said, fighting back a yawn. “Officer Blaine. I could have sworn I told you to—”

The office door flew open and Beth ran in, followed after a few seconds by a panting, sweating Honey Badger. “Chief! It’s an emergency!”

“—take it easy for the rest of the day.” Bogo ended the call and slammed his phone down, standing to tower even more over his sole hare officer. “What in blazes makes you think you can just barge into my office at this time of night, Blaine? In case you haven’t noticed, EVERYTHING is an emergency!”

“I understand that sir, but please!” Beth hopped onto the chair, then the desk itself, stumbling only slightly on her bandaged feet. “I have reason to believe that all of Zootopia and its citizens are in danger. Honey here has told me that this afternoon, she infiltrated a meeting in the Canal District between all the major Zootopian crime bosses! She says they may be plotting with some rabbit named Jack Savage to take over the city! It was Savage who committed the bombing this morning!”

Bogo stared at the hare for a minute, caught between surprise, worry, and aggravation that apparently all long-eared mammals on his force could wander into conspiracies without even trying. He looked from her to Honey standing near the door, who looked just about capable of speaking. “Is this true? Do you have any proof?”

Beth and the honey badger shared a look. Honey coughed, suddenly finding the floor the most interesting part of the room. “Well, no, I was one of the guards and we thoroughly patted each other down before anything started, so no recording equipment… and we were all told to leave the room before any of the actual plan was disclosed… but it happened, I swear!” Her head shot up, eyes wide. “I can take your officers to the warehouse and everything, give names! You guys follow anonymous tips, right?”

“Wouldn’t work,” said Beth, starting to look how Bogo felt. “You are in no way anonymous, and unless the meeting was actually going on when we got there, we probably wouldn’t find anything we could use in court or pursue as leads… Damn it…”

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe you,” said Bogo. “Heaven knows Hopps and Wilde got into enough insane escapades on less for me to take the word of a conspiracy theorist blogger and one of my best cops.”

Beth stood taller upon hearing this, ears perking back up. It almost made Bogo smile. Instead he sat down once more and pick up it his. “It only means that we are going to need to go about this… investigation, very carefully and with minimal resources.” He looked down at his table and grit his teeth, more frustrated now than ever at Mayor Swinton and her political games. “Too many officers are involved in protecting the mayoral candidates, I barely have enough to spare for patrols through the city. Not many options left.”

“Sir?”

“My orders from earlier still stand, Blaine.” Bogo pointed to the door. “Out. I’ve a call to make, but you go home and get what rest you can. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

She looked ready to protest, before Honey’s hand on her ankle stilled her. “Come on, Beth, he’s right. Even criminals have gotta sleep.”

A moment more and Beth slumped down, ears dropping as she hopped back to the floor. “Y-yeah, sure, of course. Goodnight, sir.”

“Goodnight, Blaine. Badger.”

One last look back at him from the hare, and then the door shut. Bogo counted down until he figured the pair were down the stairs at least, before leaning back in his chair and sighing. Almost of its own accord his hand dialed in a number given to him long ago and brought the phone to his ear. It rang five times before picking up on the other end. “I know it’s late, and to be honest this is a call I never wanted to make, but it’s time to get back to work.”

“Consarnit! Ah just went and turned off the ovens!”

Bogo blinked, checked the clock, and blinked again. “Um. Who is this?”

“Grey’s Pies & Bakery,” said the voice on the other end of the line. “And no, we still don’t do any alcoholic treats!”

“I… uh…” Unable to say anything else, Bogo hit the END CALL button and set the phone down on the desk. He felt his whole body shaking. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to scream or laugh at having fallen for the bogus phone number.

“Darn you, Nick Wilde. In person it is, then.”

***

_The nightmare was an old and familiar one to Judy Hopps, yet it still carried all the heartbreaking terror it had that first night home in Bunnyburrow. She stood motionless in the blueberry fields to the far northern edges of the farm, the hedges far taller and shadow-filled than they were in the waking world. Judy wore again her ZPD uniform, her badge a blaze of gold in the noonday sun. The sound of children playing echoed in from the distance._

_But then, before Judy's eyes the shadows of the hedges stretched out, up, staining the sky grey. In the unnatural dusk the blueberries in their hedges bulged, then unfurled into Night Howlers, the flowers glowing an electric-blue._

_The laughter of playing children turned to screams, soon drowned out by snarls, roars, and howls._

_"Judy! Judy, help!"_

_As always, Judy turned around at a glacial pace, the sound of ripping flesh reaching her ears long before her eyes found the source. There stood Nick, forced to stand ramrod straight as branches and vines entwined themselves around him. They dug into him, in and out until it became nearly impossible to tell where fox ended and plant began._

_"Judy... help me..."_

_"Nick!" She hopped toward him; or at least, tried to, before sudden bone-breaking pain erupted through her legs, sending her screaming and reeling in place. She looked down and saw more foxes chomping down on her legs to hold her in place, Arctic eyes glaring at her._

_She looked back up and saw Nick again, free of the branches but sans right arm now, eyes turned an Arctic blue. As she watched, his fur and skin split, Night Howler flowers sprouting free as if from plain soil. And as this happened he smiled, a smile no loved one could give. "Your legacy, Carrots."_

Judy bolted upright in bed, strangling the scream before it reached her lips until it turned into a coughing fit. "Ni-Ni-cough-Nnnick!"

No answer came from the darkened bedroom. A normal darkness, the kind to come before the dawn, waiting with bated breath and the promise of a long day of work.

Slowly, with a supreme act of will, Judy reigned in her thundering heart. She bit her lip and looked to the left, glancing over the empty space Nick should have been sleeping in as fast as possible to reach the clock on the nightstand. It read 5:15, only half an hour before her alarm would go off, not nearly enough time to return to sleep even if she had wanted to.

"Only a dream, only a dream, only a dream..." Once she was able to repeat this to herself without a cough or wheeze to interrupt it, Judy threw her covers off and slipped out of bed, turning the alarm off and turning the lamp on. She hesitated a moment before grabbing her phone, unsure of what to type or if it'd even be answered.

Judy: "Sorry if waking you, just needed to say—"

She paused, biting her lip again as she glanced around the bedroom in a bid for time. The bookshelves, filled with all his cheesy RomComs and her horror flicks. The clothes still tossed about on the floor, letting his scent infuse the room. The ointment bottles for treating the three scars left by Delgato across her face. The simple gold band resting on the nightstand, ready for her finger.

"—just needed to say I love you. Hope the academy's not giving too much trouble. Come home soon, we all miss you."

Not waiting for a response, Judy set the phone back on the nightstand and headed for the shower, and from there, breakfast. It was going to be a long day.

***

By the time Judy had finished her shower and gotten dressed in her fave shorts and tee, the sun was well on its way up and the closest Hopps family farm dining area was swarming with bunnies readying for work. She wormed her way through to the cooking stations, soon catching sight of Bonnie Hopps working a waffle iron. "Hey, Mom!"

Ears perked and the bunny matron looked up from her work. "Oh there's my favorite little cop! Gonna join your family for once, Judy?"

"No, sorry," said Judy, doing her best to ignore the slight wilting of ears of those siblings close enough to hear. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and downed it in one go, tossing the cup into a sink before sliding past her mother for the door out. "Gotta run into town today, I'll just get something at Gideon's. See ya!"

"Judy, aren't you forgetting something?"

She stopped mid-stride, hand on the brass doorknob. A few laughs echoed through her siblings' ranks. She swallowed and tried to smile. "Mom—"

"Judith Laverne Wilde-Hopps."

More laughter from her brothers and sisters. Judy bit back a snarl, feeling her cheeks radiating with heat as she took her wedding band from her shorts pocket and slipped it on. Then before another word could be said she yanked the door open and stomped out, slamming it shut behind her.

"Stay cool, stay cool, stay cool."

Her father was already riding a tractor out in the fields. The rumble of its engine made for soothing background noise as Judy walked the stretch of road from the main Hopps family compound to the farm's outskirts. There she turned westward to town, put in her headphones, and brought up her latest exercise playlist. Then, the songs of Marena and the Diamonds filling her ears, she ran.

“I was pulling out my hair the day I got the deal  
Chemically calm  
Was I meant to feel happy  
That my life was just about to change?”

The farmland passed in a haze to Judy’s left and right, normal bunnies going about their normal days, pausing to wave and shout helloes to her as she jogged past. Judy waved on autopilot, gaze remaining forward, mentally ticking down the miles to Bunnyburrow Main Street.

“High achiever don't you see  
Baby, nothing comes for free  
They say I'm a control freak  
Driven by a greed to succeed  
Nobody can stop me

“Cause it's my problem  
If I wanna pack up and run away  
It's my business if I feel the need to  
Smoke and drink and sway  
It's my problem, it's my problem  
If I feel the need to hide  
And it's my problem if I have no friends  
And feel I want to die.”

The sun burned on Judy’s back. Her legs burned worse as the road beneath her transitioned from hard-packed dirt to asphalt and the farms gave way to bunny and carrot-themed buildings, few taller than two stories. She turned onto another street and welcomed the shade provided, eyes wandering now to take in the bunnies and sheep and pigs and goats opening their businesses for the day. Her pace slowed as for a moment in time she was transported back to another city, another street to run on with wildly more diverse mammals around her, but she brushed this aside and pushed on as she saw her destination coming up some yards ahead. A familiar splash of red brought a smile to her lips.

“Are you satisfied with an average life  
Do I need to lie to make my way in life  
“Are you satisfied with an easy ride  
Once you cross the line  
Will you be satisfied?”

The song finished and Judy slid to a stop in front of the store just as Gideon Grey set out the welcome mat, causing the plump baker to jump back in surprise. “Land sakes, Judes, you could’ve given me a heart attack right there!”

Judy rolled her eyes as she removed her earphones and stuck them back in a pocket. “No offense, Gids, but I think if that ever happens, your pies will be more to blame than anything I did.”

She emphasized this observation with a poke to the fox’s belly. He eeped and batted her hand away, though kept smiling all the same. “Eh, you’re probably right. Oh hey, today’s a ring day, is it?”

At this Judy looked down at her right hand, the gold band shining in the sun. She smiled despite herself. “Yeah… I guess it is.”

A moment of comfortable silence passed between the two, before Gideon coughed and turned for the door to his bakery. “Well, ah guess ah’ll go on and get your usual slice of blueberry pie.”

“Go ahead and make it two slices,” Judy said to the fox’s retreating back. “I’m feeling hungrier than usual this morning.”

The bell above the door jangled as Gideon went inside, leaving Judy alone on the bakery porch. She turned and leaned against the wall, ignoring the looks from people visiting neighboring shops as she pulled out her phone. She stood taller, ears perking and smile growing at the sight of a new text.

Nick: “Hey Carrots, sorry about the dream. Missing you too, hugs and kisses. <3”

Judy giggled and texted back. “Oh you corny little fox. When’d you go soft on me?”

Nick: “It’s a necessity, sarcasm doesn’t carry well in writing. You sure you’re fine? Worried for Zootopia. :(”

Judy grimaced at the reminder. She remembered seeing the horror on the news the day before, the blasted city block, the fires burning, the emergency services struggling to keep up with it all. She remembered the others at the dinner table, her mother and father and siblings, glancing her way, as if hoping for her to jump up and run for Zootopia right that minute. She almost had.

Nick: “You still there? Earth to Carrots. Sorry for bringing Zootopia up.”

Judy: “No, it’s fine. Just thinking if I could… I don’t even know.”

The bells above the bakery door jingled again as Gideon came back out, a bag with her pie in hand. She started to turn to him, a thank-you on her lips, before a familiar engine roar from down the street froze her in place. She looked, ears and jaw dropping as a ZPD cruiser pulled to a stop in front of the bakery. “What?”

“Oh hey, Judes,” said Gideon, coming to stand next to her. “You didn’t say ya had city friends visiting today.”

“I, I don’t. I…” Judy swallowed, eyes roving over the cruiser hungrily, drinking in the crisp black and white paint job, the reflective windows, the massive wheels. She’d never known until that moment how much she’d missed the sight of the musclebound vehicles.

After a moment the engine cut off and the driver-side door opened. For a moment Judy thought one of the Fangmeyers would step out, or McHorn, or maybe even Chief Bogo, but then—

“Land sakes,” said Gideon.” That’s the tallest rabbit I’ve ever seen.”

Judy rolled her eyes. “She’s not a rabbit, Gid. She’s a hare.”

The Arctic hare did stand tall in her ZPD uniform though, almost as tall as Gideon without even counting her ears, though she didn’t look nearly as heavy as the fox. She approached the pair with a slow step, a look in her red eyes as they focused on Judy that she had grown long-tired of. Her scarred face usually got that reaction. “Officer… Judith Laverne Hopps?”

Gideon chuckled as most did whenever her middle name was spoken. Judy sighed and elbowed his gut. “It’s Wilde-Hopps now, actually, and I’m not sure how much of an officer I am anymore, but yes, that’s me.”

The hare paused in her walk and blinked, glancing down at Judy’s ring finger. “Oh! Well, congratulations to both of you then!”

“Thank you, Officer…”

“Blaine.” The hare snapped a quick salute. “Bethany Blaine. Most call me Beth. And I don’t know if you know this, ma’am, but Zootopia desperately needs your help.”

***

Blaine explained as they drove back to the Hopps family farm. From the bombing and her attempt to save the shrews to the discovery of the plot against the city, leaving out no detail she could remember. Judy listened from the passenger seat, her gaze out the window at the rolling farmland beyond, listened and thought.

“And so you see, we are desperately short of veteran cops right now, people with the investigative experience to handle this. You have to come back, Hopps. We need you.”

“I don’t have to do anything, Blaine. If you look at my file you will clearly see that I am on extended medical leave, my heart needs to recover—”

“Bull,” said the hare, causing Judy to snap toward her. “You’re in exercise clothes and there were no other vehicles on that street I found you on, implying you at least jogged into town. You don’t stink either, implying the run hardly worked up a sweat for you. There’s no loss of muscle definition anywhere I can see, so you’ve been doing this for a while. I’d say you’re as fit right now as anyone coming out of the academy.”

Try as she might, Judy couldn't think up a refutation of anything just said. In her silence, Beth continued. "Why did you never come back, Hopps? Bogo keeps your office reserved. Clawhauser has a little 'Welcome back' mug sitting on his desk every morning just in case you walk in. Half my graduating class had dreams of being assigned as your partner!"

"Turn down this--" The cruiser turned onto the road to success the Hopps farm before she finished. Judy gave Beth a look, before shaking her head and leaning back in her seat. "That's all just the ZPD, though. We're close like that. Zootopia... it doesn't want me."

"What, 'cause Weaselton's book on all your sordid misdeeds is a bestseller?"

Judy jumped in her seat, doing nothing to hide her indignation as she twisted around to the hare driving. "Are you kidding me!? That book is some of the most poorly-researched garbage I've ever read! He keeps mistaking clubs for batons, tasers for stun guns! Not a single police radio code in the book is right! And the misspellings, ohhh my gosh!"

"Officer Wilde has an e at the end of his name!"

The hare's grin was infectious. Judy found herself sharing it as she remembered Nick's reaction to that particular misspelling. "The misplaced punctuation marks, the weird capitalization throughout, the page with nothing on it but a single tiny question mark, it's just—"

"Too much," finished Blaine, laughing. Judy laughed with her a few seconds, then relaxed back into her seat. The main Hopps compound could be seen through the front windshield now, countless bunnies working and playing around it. Most of them stopped what they were doing as the police cruiser approached, Blaine keeping it at a snail's speed with so many children around. Again Judy felt an unexpected twinge of nostalgia at once more being on that side of the glass.

"You all think this Jack Savage character is that bad?"

"Guy walked into the middle of a crime lord meeting and got everyone to drop their guns, so... I trust my source."

"And you don't think the bombing was the extent of his plan?"

"Why else even go to the meeting unless there's more?"

One of Judy's favorite nephews caught sight of her through the window and began waving from the roadside. Judy smiled and waved back. "I haven't seen Nick's mom in ages. Her guest room is always ready..."

Blaine pulled to a stop a yard from the front porch, setting the cruiser in park and turning the engine off. She did a respectable job of not looking excited, Judy thought, but had nothing on Nick's mask of apathy. "Is that a, uh... a yes?"

Judy opened the door and hopped out, greeting the swarm of younger bunnies greeting her with a laugh and some ruffled heads. She looked up from them and saw her mother and father on the porch, watching her with looks she couldn't quite name. And so she let her mind drift to the streets of Zootopia, to the hustle and bustle of Savannah Central, to the snow banks of Tundratown, to the Rainforest District gondolas, to the echoing halls and friendly faces of ZPD headquarters, to a fox smiling at her with a frozen treat in hand one simmering Sahara Square morning.

"Yeah," said Judy, smiling. "I think it is. I've got a job to do."


	4. Chapter 4

Judy eyed ZPD headquarters from Blaine’s parked cruiser, not sure what it was she was looking for or expecting. Everything looked about the same as it had the last time she’d seen the building nearly 15 months before. Mostly it was the people going in and out that were different, more varied. A lot more small mammals like her, both in and out of uniform. The thought of so many of them being somehow inspired by her example made her heart swell. The thought of them seeing her as she was now nearly made her touch her scars in nervousness. Instead she settled for playing with the zipper of the black jacket she’d thrown on before leaving.

“So, you ready to go and make the world a better place?”

Judy glanced at Blaine in the driver’s seat, and then unbuckled and opened her door. “Let’s do this.”

They crossed the parking lot with no issue, just a rabbit and a hare going about their business while the weather was good. Then they ran into Francine at the ZPD doors, the elephant cop freezing where she stood and eyeing them like she'd seen a ghost. "Hopps?"

This turned some heads their way. A deer gawked as he walked until he ran into a wall and got his antlers stuck. A family of chipmunks heading for another door paused and started chittering among themselves, pointing. Somewhere a phone camera clicked, and then another.

Judy ignored all this and gave Francine an honest smile. "It's good to see you again."

"Yeah! You too!" The elephant's smile took on a knowing look. "And I'm not the only one who's gonna be saying that. Catch you later!"

Judy watched Francine go, unsure of what that meant. At another camera's click she set that aside and strode into the ZPD with hastened steps, hoping the people inside would show at least a little more restraint—

"O. M. GOODNESS! JUDY!"

Judy flinched at the exuberant shout echoing through the tan and gold building, suddenly finding herself the center of attention for every cop, criminal, and civilian in the area. Just like outside there were whispers and pointed fingers, not all of them friendly.

"Good job, Clawhauser," said Blaine from Judy's side, throwing a pair of fantastically sarcastic thumbs-ups at the chubby cheetah manning the front desk. "Way to make it all feel nice and normal again."

Clawhauser’s meek apology was drowned out by the SLAM of a door being thrown open. Chief Bogo appeared at the railing on the second floor. “BLAINE, HOPPS, MY OFFICE, NOW! AND THE LOT OF YOU, STOP STANDING AROUND LIKE A GAGGLE OF DODO BIRDS!”

With that, he turned and stomped back into his office and slammed the door shut. As if broken from a trance, the hall became a center of activity once more, prompting Judy to sigh as she started for the elevators, Blaine following close behind. Clawhauser gave a subdued wave as they passed and Judy waved back, trying to tell him there were no hard feelings. “I never thought I’d miss Bogo’s yelling, but, there you go.”

“Oh,” said the hare beside her. “So he’s always been that shouty. The number of times I’ve been called to his office, that actually makes me feel a lot better.”

To that, Judy could only grunt in agreement as she hit the button for the elevator. Getting called to Bogo’s office never meant anything good. Or at least, so she thought until they reached Bogo’s office, a heartachingly familiar voice catching Judy’s ear as she slid the door open.

“And so I said, that’s not an ice cream maker, that’s my car!”

“Nick?”

There he stood in front of Bogo’s desk in his police uniform, tall and slim and handsome as she remembered. Even his prosthetic right arm, white and chrome and emblazoned with the H&T logo of HiteTech Industries, its manufacturer, did nothing to take away from this. It only reminded her of his bravery and perseverance through the fight that made him need the new limb.

And as he turned to the sound of her voice a smile spread across his muzzle, the same warm smile he wore when she pinned his police badge to his uniform, when she slid his wedding band on his finger. “Hey, Judy. It’s been a while.”

Judy gave a short, strangled laugh, shaking her head as she stepped forward to punch her husband’s shoulder. “You dweeb.” Punch. “You jerk.” Punch. “You snot-nosed Reynard.” Punch. “10… 10 months is a little more than ‘a while,’ dumb fox. I know working at the police academy is important, but you could have… could have visited, Nick.”

“I know, I know…” Smile dropping, the fox cupped Judy’s chin with his newer hand, where she noticed he wore his wedding band, and lifted it up until their eyes met. “I’m sorry. I was scared and it was a mistake. I won’t do it again.”

Judy grinned and reached up, giving his tie a tug. "Oh, I'll make sure of that, Mr. Wilde-Hopps."

He winked at her, that old hustler’s smirk sliding onto his muzzle as easily as it had the day they’d met. “Oh-ho, I think I’d like to see that, Mrs. Wilde-Hopps.”

"As sure as I am that Clawhauser will kill me for ruining this moment," said Bogo, startling husband and wife back to the present, "I do believe there are more pressing matters to attend to at the moment?"

"Right, right," said Judy, letting go of Nick's tie and backing up a step, Nick brushing himself down and doing the same. Judy's ears flushed at the amused smirk on Blaine's face and she turned her attention to Bogo for distraction. "So! Officer Blaine gave me the basics of the situation on the drive here, but has anything changed in the city since she left for Bunnyburrow?"

"Nothing dramatic, if that's what you're hoping for," said Bogo. He put on his glasses and began flipping through a folder. "No chases through Little Rodentia or exploding boats, at least."

"Blaine's witness, Honey Badger, took me to the supposed site of the crime boss meeting," said Nick as he leaned against Bogo's desk. "Clean as a whistle, as we all expected. Too clean, actually. Didn't look like a living soul had been in that warehouse in years."

Judy thought back on what she remembered of the Canal District and frowned. "That doesn't make any sense. Even in the warmer months those warehouses are prime real estate for the city's homeless. Even if they were cleared out for the meeting, there should have been boxes, blankets, something."

"Not in this case." Bogo slapped the folder shut and tossed it to Blaine. The hare caught it and tucked it under an arm. "So someone knows to stay away from that place. Clawhauser's reaching out to City Hall for records of whoever owns the lot, but until that gets through, the warehouse is a dead end."

Judy got a foul taste in her mouth. "That leaves the bombing itself to look into."

Bogo nodded and leaned back in his seat. "I'll leave that to you three. Though before you head down to the labs, Hopps, I suggest heading to the armory." He glanced for a split-second at Blaine. "Can't risk going out unarmored against this crew.

“Oh, and Hopps,” the cape buffalo said as the trio headed for the door. She turned back and just managed to catch the police badge tossed her way. “Welcome back, Lieutenant.”

***

Judy was still adjusting the straps for one of her arm guards when the elevator reached the ZPD evidence garage, the stark greys and flickering fluorescent lights an immediate eyesore after the warm openness of the building's upper floors. She checked that the badge pinned to her Kevlar vest wasn't obscured by the jacket she'd elected to keep, before giving her name to the sloth running the check-in desk and starting down the rows of vehicles in various stages of disassembly. Here were many of the vehicles taken in by the ZPD that required more thorough levels of examination; or like in the case of their current investigation, the REMAINS of vehicles involved in crimes. Nick had once compared the place to a chop shop, only with nothing for sale. Judy had to agree.

“Look, I’m not saying you’re doing a bad job, I’m just seriously questioning how LONG this is taking. I mean, there really isn’t that much left to sniff over in the first place! It’s TNT, plain and simple.”

“Your underdeveloped fox senses might think so, but I can assure you they are most inadequate for the task at hand. Now silence!”

Ears up, Judy followed the arguing voices to a far middle row. Here she found Nick and Blaine standing next to what she could only assume to have once been the delivery truck, polar bear-scale, for whatever explosives had rocked Sahara Square. Now it was but a charred and shattered husk, the cab barely recognizable. “Wow, that must have taken a lot of heat.”

Her fellow officers turned to her, a smile splitting Nick’s face. “Hey, Carrots, looking—”

Whatever compliment Nick was going to give her was drowned out as a black bear in the bizarre combination of denim coveralls and a lab coat waddled out from behind the wreckage, his shout of welcome echoing through the garage. “Ah, Officer Hopps! Finally, someone to control this fox! The hare, she’s no good at it at all.”

It was a struggle to decide whose glare came closer to murderous, Nick’s or Blaine’s. Judy didn’t bother trying, instead shaking her head and meeting the black bear next to the close side of the wreck. “Hello, Bertrand, always nice to see a familiar face. Found anything interesting?”

The bear gave his coat a pat to shake off some black powder, before gesturing to the wreck beside them. “Well as I was explaining to your wayward partner as you arrived, it was not merely TNT at the source of this bombing. Based on the required explosive yield necessary for the damage seen against the maximum amount a vehicle this size could have carried, peculiarities in the scorch patterns, I’m also detecting faint traces of ammonium nitrate.”

“That’s amatol!” At Judy and Nick’s questioning stares, Blaine coughed and rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry. It’s just, what Bertrand described there, it’s amatol, a common military explosive. Dangerous stuff.”

“I can imagine,” said Judy, remembering images of the blast on the news and shuddering. Turning back to the bear examiner she saw him once more picking through the jumble of twisted metal and melted plastics. “How easy would it be for someone to get their hands on this stuff?”

“Eh, hard to say,” Bertrand responded, huffing as he began tugging on some part of the wreck Judy couldn’t see. “Ammonium nitrate itself is common enough in high-nitrogen fertilizers, and TNT, eh, there are always mining and demolition companies willing to sell off extra stock. Find someone with the military know-how to mix the two and you’re in business. No, the real problem our bombers would have faced in all this would have been scale, the AMOUNT of amatol they needed to make.”

“Oh, fun.” Sarcasm dripped from Nick’s lips. “Digging through shipping records for any noticeably large deliveries of explosive ingredients. Exactly what I wanted to do my first day back. Just the height of excitement.”

A frustrated huff rang out as Bertrand gave up on pulling free whatever he’d been struggling with and instead pulled out his phone. A few seconds later Blaine jumped as a buzzing started from her pocket. “You’ll be wanting to look into that as well, I wager,” said Bertrand. “It’s a photo of the license plate. Miraculously, it survived.”

Blaine pulled her phone out and started typing on it. After a moment Judy felt her own phone buzz, followed soon by Nick by the way he jumped. Judy couldn’t help the swell of nostalgia as she checked the photo on her phone. “Well, I don’t know about you, Nick, but this is giving me FLASHbacks.”

“Hah! I get it!”

“I don’t,” said Bertrand. “And I don’t care. Now go! Shoo! We’re all very busy!”

“That’s an understatement,” said Blaine, the hare starting back down the row for the check-in desk and the elevator beyond. With nothing else to do there, Judy and Nick followed. “We’ll need a day or two to get the pair of you back in the system, so I’ll handle running the license plate.”

“No problem with that here.” Judy grinned over her shoulder at Nick. “Guess that just leaves the shipping records for us, Nick.”

“Like I said before.” The three stepped into the elevator and Nick hit the button for the ground floor. “Oh, fun.”

***

“Does this feel weird to you too?”

Judy yawned and looked up from the pages and pages of text displayed on the monitor in front of her to the fox sitting beside her with his own monitor and his own pages and pages of text. Their office had remained untouched as promised during their absence, aside from cleaning services, but even the forgotten stickers and inspirational posters around them did little to alleviate the pure drudgery of their task. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“I said, does any of this feel weird to you too?” Nick rolled his chair back and gestured all around them with his prosthetic. “You know, being back, being… at work again? Seeing faces old and new? Finally vindicating all of Clawhauser’s complex shipping algorithms around us?”

Judy almost drenched her computer with coffee from laughing at this last comment. Once she got her breathing back under control she sighed and shook her head, standing up on her chair to stretch. “It’s more like… it’s weird how… how not-weird it feels, I guess? I’d always planned on coming back, but…”

Nick’s chair creaked as he rolled to face her. “Why did you take so long to come back? All that clean country air and farm living was already doing wonders for your heart when I left to teach at the police academy. I was… I expected you back in Zootopia months ago. Walking the beat, giving guest lectures at the academy, regaling me with tales of your heroic exploits over candlelit dinners! Where were you!?”

By the end, Nick’s voice had risen to a shout. Judy flinched back, ears falling in dismay and nose twitching. She swallowed and reached a paw out for his, but yanked it back as for a moment she saw not the Nick in front of her, hale and healthy, but the bloodied Nick of her nightmares. It made her stomach lurch.

At her hand pulling back, Nick’s ears folded against his head, hurting flashing in his eyes. Before she could say anything he rolled to face his computer once more. “I’m not finding anything out of the ordinary here. But then, available info only goes back six months. Either our bombers got their stuff through avenues that don’t have to record their movements, or they’ve been planning this out for a while.”

Judy balled her fists at her sides and began tapping her foot. No, she would not be denied the chance to have this conversation. “Nick, I—”

“I’ve got a match!” Blaine ran into their cubicle doorway, hopping in place as she held a piece of paper out. “Ivan Icenov, otter, Tundratown..”

“I know that name,” said Nick, hopping from his chair. “Old guy, runs a cross-country delivery service, used to provide services for Mr. Big before jumping ship to Koslov.”

Judy grit her teeth, pushing the angst from moments before to the side as duty called to her. She dropped from her chair and pushed past Nick and Blaine for the elevators. “Sounds like the guy I’d hire for this kind of job. Let’s pay his place a visit.”

“Yay,” said Nick, following behind. “Running a plate sends us to Tundratown. I just want you both to know, if a panther chases us through the Rainforest District afterward, I’m going back to the academy.”

“Hah! I get it!”

Blaine sighed. “I don’t.”

***

"Tundratown Truckers," read the snow-draped sign arching over the depot's main gate. To the left and right of the gate the chain-link fence stretched for several dozen yards before turning, the links rusted and coated in ice. Fresh tire tracks ran through the gate, but nobody manned the guard stall beyond it. Judy took this all in as she hopped out of the cruiser, and already she was thoroughly, thoroughly tired of it.

"So, anyone have a spare felon to throw over the fence for probable cause?"

"Hah! I get it!"

Judy shot an appreciative glance Nick's way. Blaine looked between them, nose twitching and something between a frown and a grin on her face. "Incredible. I'd heard stories of your banter, but I never dared believe the legends were true."

"Believe them, Frosty, believe," said Nick, shooting her a pair of thumbs-ups as he passed her by. "There's a lot more where that's coming."

"Frosty" wrinkled her nose. Judy sighed and shook her head, clapping the hare on the shoulder as they followed Nick through the thrown-open gates. "Don't worry, he only gives nicknames to people he likes. And besides, Frosty is way more dignified than Carrots."

"Hey now," Nick called over his shoulder. He was drawing near the guard stall. "The carrot is a noble and hardy vegetable, and I will not have it besmirched... oh no. Carrots, Frosty, get over here!"

Judy was already running at the sound of her name, Blaine not far behind. She slid to a stop beside Nick, heart dropping at the sight of the bullet-riddled wolf slumped on the stall's floor. His glazed eyes stared up at nothing.

Nick grabbed for his radio. Blaine, not out of practice as they were, already had hers to her lips. "Dispatch, this is Officer Blaine. I'm up in Tundratown with Officers Wilde-Hopps, at 'Tundratown Truckers.' We have one shooting, probable homicide—"

The sudden echo of more gunfire deeper into the depot made Judy jump. She spun to the nearby loading docks, hand going to the dart gun holstered on her thigh. "Blaine, tell Dispatch shots fired, will need ambulances. Nick, with me!"

“On your tail!”

The pair left Blaine speaking directions to Dispatch at the stall, hunkering low as they crossed the stretch of snow and tire-churned mud to the closest of the steel and cement loading docks. Judy kept her ears swiveling for the slightest sound as she led the approach into the warehouse, trusting Nick to keep lookout behind her as she glanced below the parked 18-wheelers for movement on the other side. Their footsteps echoed across the plain cement floor, soft thumps that could have easily just been the beating of her heart.

“Our first blasted day back,” she heard Nick mutter behind her. “Our first blasted case! Our first blasted lead—”

BANG.

“Aaugh!”

Judy dove for cover behind a stack of wood crates, Nick joining her an instant later. Drawing her sidearm, she glanced over the crates, scanning the warehouse ahead. She spotted two polar bears draped over more crates and a snow leopard hanging halfway out of an idling truck, but no sign of anyone with a weapon—

Another bang, closer and louder, sounded off to their left, past the aisles of stacked crates and boxes. Judy took the lead, leapfrogging with Nick from one aisle to the next until they reached the other side of the warehouse, where the offices seemed to be. A wooden door shot nearly to pieces stood ajar, opening to a short hallway that led to other rooms. At the far end of the hallway a steel door emblazoned with the words EMERGENCY EXIT was thrown open to the wintry landscape beyond. Already, snow was starting to gather around the edges of the hallway closest the door.

“Looks like whoever got one too many packages too late has flown the coop.”

Judy shot Nick a glare, before reaching for her radio. “Dispatch, ETA on that backup and those ambulances?”

“ETA is three minutes,” said Clawhauser over the radio. “How’s it looking out there, you two?”

“Bad, Clawhauser.” Advancing with Nick toward the offices, Judy glanced behind them to the bodies littering the warehouse. “Really bad. I’m thinking Wendigo Killer kind of—”

Once more, Judy ran at the sound of Nick’s voice. She found him in what once might have been the boss’s office, now trashed beyond recognition, kneeling over a frail little otter in slacks. A pool of blood was growing around them. Too much blood, Judy thought, for such a small body to lose.

“Come on, Ivan old buddy, be a fighter like you always are! Help’ll be here any minute now!”

The otter coughed and shook, perhaps laughing as he locked eyes with Nick. “You cops… such optimistic… morons…”

“That’s the spirit,” said Nick. His voice grew shaky as more and more blood seeped through his fingers. “If you can throw insults around then you can damn well hang on, you furry little… Ivan? Ivan!”

But Icenov was already growing limp where he lay, breathing slowing as his glassy-eyed gaze fell from Nick to Judy, still at the door. Her ears prickled as she watched him mouth two words with his last breath.

“Savage. Aquarium.”


	5. Chapter 5

A dozen police cruisers and ambulances filled the cordoned-off truck depot, lighting it up red and blue as afternoon sank down into evening. Judy sat on the hood of Blaine’s cruiser and watched the paramedics wheel the victims out of the warehouse in body bags, while through the raised doors she saw Forensics collecting spent casings and whatever else they could find. Here was a part of the job she certainly felt no nostalgia for.

“No, no, I’m telling you Frosty, Mr. Big’s organization can’t have had anything to do with this. It’s tradition, no violence or crime for a week with the death of a family member.”

“But you said yourself that Fru Fru’s unlikely to assume leadership of the mob herself, leaving it up to mammals NOT in the Big family. What if they don’t respect tradition?”

Judy ignored Nick pacing around beside the car and arguing with Blaine in the driver’s seat, instead mentally repeating to herself the last words spoken by Ivan Icenov. Savage. Aquarium. Savage, she remembered, was the last name of the bunny that Blaine’s informant said had orchestrated Mr. Big’s death, but as for aquariums…

Judy was shaken from her thoughts by the nearing crunch of hooves in snow. Chief Bogo stomped toward the trio, his entire countenance scowling. “On your first assignment. Not even one day back. Not even one hour spent back out on the streets! And already it’s massacres and gunfights! What is it with you two!?”

Nick stopped his pacing and backed up to Judy’s side, a weak chuckle leaving him. “Would it, uh, make you feel any better that I had almost the exact same thought as this was going on?”

Bogo’s flat glare made it clear that this did not make him feel any better. At all. Judy sighed and dropped off the car. “Sir, I really don’t know what to tell you. If we hadn’t shown up here, then there’s no telling when all of this—” she gestured around them “—would’ve been reported. And we wouldn’t have a clue where to go next.”

Nick and Blaine shot her surprised looks. Bogo blinked, some of the anger disappearing. “You did find something then?”

“Well…” Judy looked at Nick, who could only shrug. “Sort of. We found Icenov in his office, already dying. Just before he… expired… he managed two words. Savage, and aquarium.”

“Savage?” Bogo frowned and looked between them. “As in the rabbit Blaine’s informant mentioned? But then these would be his own people he had killed. Hardly an effective way to not draw attention to something.”

“Which means,” said Nick, giving his hands a weak little wave in faux-excitement, “We’re dealing with a bloodthirsty maniac! Yay—ow!”

Judy pulled her elbow back from the fox’s side and shook her head that no, now was not the time. Looking over as one of the paramedics yelled that they got the last body loaded up, she sighed and let her ears droop as she turned back to Bogo. “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t think there’s much more use in us staying around here.”

“I agree,” said Bogo. “Get back to the station and write up your reports for the day, all of you. Then call it a night. Tomorrow’s not going to be any better than today, I’d wager.”

“Yes Sir—” Judy started, but the cape buffalo was already stomping away. She slumped where she stood and turned to Nick and Blaine, fighting the sudden urge to yawn. “Well, you heard the man. Let’s go.”

“I have a suggestion first, before we return to the station.” Blain gave the engine a rev. “Coffee.”

This made Judy smile, while Nick did a fist pump as he walked around to the passenger-side door. “Beth, this might be the start of a wonderful friendship.”

***

“Hmm… so what do you think? Chinese?”

“…”

“Okay… how ‘bout Thai?”

“…”

“No, you’re right, too spicy. Greek?”  
“…”  
“Micecan? Listen, Miss Black, I am going to keep the Ghostbusters quotes coming all night if you don’t respond to at least one!”

“… pizza.”

“Thin or thick?”

“Chicagoat.”

“Yes!” Jack laughed and fell back onto his living room couch, kicking his legs up at the ceiling in glee. He’d known, known for certain, that he could get the stone exterior of the wolf sitting off at the desk in the corner to crack. “And all it took was the threat of cinematic torture.”

“Congratulations.” Miss Black didn’t raise her head from the disassembled assault rifle on the desk before her, picking each piece up to examine and clean. “Miss White’s wasting your talents by allowing you to freelance.”

Jack rolled his eyes and grabbed for his phone. “I think it’s safe to say your sarcasm isn’t going to waste. Now hush, I’m trying to remember the phone—”

The door to Jack’s apartment flew open, cracking as it slammed into the wall. Jack sat up at the noise, a shotgun already halfway-pulled from beneath the couch cushions. He relaxed at the sight of the polar bear crouched down low in the doorway. “Koslov! Great timing! I was just about to order dinner!”

The polar bear growled and gestured with a balled fist, prompting five weasels with pipes and knuckle dusters to crowd into the living room. Jack kept his smile up as he eyed them, twitching his left ear to signal Miss Black. “Yeah, if I’m ordering for this many people, we’re gonna have to pool our money. Also, I get final veto powers on all pizza toppings.”

One of the weasels smacked a crowbar into the TV. Koslov growled and slammed a fist into the doorframe. “Savage, you maniac! You think you can just gun down seven of my people without retaliation!? Do you know how long it will take me to gather again a solid foothold in that area? Other bosses will move in, bosses with delivery crews that are STILL BREATHING!”

“Hm.” Jack looked from the broken remains of the television to the polar bear. “I just want to clarify one thing, if that’s okay with you. First off, my favorite movie, Terror Train, was coming on in five minutes. Second, I did not shoot up your men. She did.” He pointed behind him at Miss Black, who had begun the process of putting her rifle back together. “See? She just finished up stripping and cleaning the weapon and everything, right? And third—”

Jack dragged the shotgun the rest of the way out of the couch, aimed, and proceeded to paint the apartment wall with the closest of the weasels. “IT WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE IF THE COPS HADN’T BEEN THERE!”

The remaining four weasels screamed and ran out the door. Koslov remained standing there, eyes wide as Jack jumped over the back of the couch and strode over to jam the still-smoking barrel against his throat. “What kind of amateur leaves the license plate on!? If we hadn’t hacked the ZPD phones and seen that photo, your boys would be downtown spilling their guts to Chief Bogo! You should feel lucky enough I let Black over there take care of things quick and efficiently, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation because I’d still be having my fun! Understand that, Koslov?”

“Y-yes, I underst—”

“And another thing!” Jack turned back to the couch, trading the shotgun for his phone and pulling up a news site. Video appeared of a dozen or more reporters of every species waiting in the fluorescent-lit night outside the ZPD. They all charged forward in a stampede at the sight of a rabbit and a fox exiting the building, voices overlapping as they yammered on and on with questions. “Why the Hell are Wilde-Hopps back in action!?”

***

Judy knew it was only a matter of time until the media cottoned on to her and Nick’s return. However, just getting off of the day she’d had, capped ever so perfectly by two hours of paperwork and filing, she did not appreciate the timing.

“Judy Hopps! What are your reasons for coming back to Zootopia in light of the controversy surrounding your departure?”

“Is there any relation to the reported death of Tundratown mob boss Mr. Big in yesterday’s bombing? Are you still associated with the family?”

“Do you have any words to say on Duke Weselton’s book naming you the most corrupt cop of the ZPD?”

“Will you be attending Gazelle’s charity banquet for the victims of the Sahara Square bombing?”

“Can you verify reports of a shooting massacre in Tundratown? Is that related any to—”

“Who’s the lucky buck or doe who put that ring on your finger?”

Judy flinched and pulled that hand back from where she’d been about to jab a particularly pushy raccoon reporter in the chest. Before she could say anything Nick growled and stepped forward, doing the finger jabbing for her. “Hey! That is a wildly inappropriate question!”

Unfortunately, Judy noticed at once, Nick had done the finger jabbing with his prosthetic hand. The hand he had HIS wedding band on, and consequently the instant focus of every reporter and cameraman in the crowd. Her ears began to ache as the flood of questions turned into a frenzy, spots growing in her eyes as the flash of cameras turned into near-continuous.

Salvation came in the form of a gaudily painted van, indecipherable rap music blaring into the night as it barreled into the ZPD parking lot. Judy flinched as it came to a screeching stop mere inches from the crowd of reporters, sending more than a few of them scattering, but wasted no time in hurrying to the van’s back doors.

The moment she and Nick were both inside and the doors closed, the van took off, sending more reporters scattering. Judy almost laughed as she worked her way to the front of the wildly swerving and tilting van, turning off the music so that the fennec fox driving could hear her. “Finnick! You’re an absolute lifesaver!”

“And you’re an absolute stranger,” Finnick growled, not taking his eyes off the road as he drove, through some unspoken understanding, for Happytown High-Rise. “Both of you. Just when were you losers gonna come see me anyway?”

Nick wormed his way past Judy into the passenger seat, shooting his fellow fox a familiar smirk. “Would it make you feel any better if we told you that you’re the first non-ZPD friend we’ve seen since getting back only this morning?”

“A little,” Finnick said, his driving slowing to the point where Judy didn’t worry at being pulled over by one of her own coworkers. “Don’t know how much I’ll be once you two tell me how much trouble Zootopia’s in THIS time.”

“Oh boy.” Feeling a headache coming, Judy joined Nick in the passenger seat. The fox looked like he desperately wished to put his arm over her shoulders but didn’t dare without at least implicit permission. She left him hanging like that and focused on the road ahead. “Where to even begin. Crime lords from all across Zootopia gathering together, rabbits organizing bombings, warehouses getting shot to pieces…”

“I changed my mind,” said Finnick, parking the van in front of the Happytown High-Rise apartment complex. “Ignorance is bliss and I should start looking into Bunnyburrow housing, got it. Now get out before I decide to pay the lovely Marian Wilde a social visit.”

Nick kept his smile up as he hopped out of the van and looked back at Finnick. “You do that, friend, and they will never find your body.”

Finnick looked unsure of how seriously to take that threat. Judy rolled her eyes and punched Nick’s arm, before waving the fennec fox goodbye. “See you around, Finnick. Take care of yourself.”

“Yeah… you too…”

From there it was a short but tense trip to the apartment’s third floor, Judy not quite sure what to say to Nick in their first real time alone together since getting back that didn’t also involve work to distract them. The moldy, barely tolerable conditions of the apartment building around them provided no adequate distraction, leaving her almost wishing she’d gotten a hotel or something. Anything to put some space between her and the fox walking beside her, at least until she could get her thoughts in order.

Nick’s mother greeted them with all the joy and warmth Judy had long-grown to associate with the elder fox. If she felt any surprise or disquiet at their sudden appearance she didn’t show it as she stepped back and invited them in. “Come on, you two lovebirds, get in before there’s a draft! Was just finishing up dinner when I saw you two on the news and simply couldn’t believe the, the invasiveness of those reporters! Thank goodness for dear old Finnick, yes? What a sweet little man. Oh, but you two look famished! Have you eaten yet? Come on, there’s plenty of spaghetti left if you want it.”

“Hey, Ma.” Nick bent down to hug her, amazing Judy as always with how soft and warm he could seem around her. “Spaghetti sounds perfect, I’m absolutely starving. And yeah, those people, guh! Right, Judes?”

“Yeah,” said Judy, hanging her jacket and bulletproof vest on the hooks by the door before going to hug Marian as well. “Absolutely guh.”

They went to the small apartment’s even smaller kitchen, where despite protests from both Judy and Nick, Marian insisted on serving both of them. It went unspoken to not bring up work, so as Marian spooned out the spaghetti and turned the oven on to reheat the garlic bread they discussed anything and everything else. Zootopian gossip Marian had heard from her circle of friends and Finnick, tall tales Nick swore up and down he’d witnessed at the police academy, thoughts and observations on the mayoral race and Gazelle’s chances of winning, down to family news and stories from the Hopps side of the family. Judy found herself more relaxed than she had been in recent memory.

“—took two hours to get his foot out, and he hasn’t gone down to the south fields for a week. Janine finished the second draft of her big fantasy novel and is sending it around for critiques. I’ll get you a copy of it if you want, Marian, though I think it’s a little derivative of Legends of Heraldale. Oh, and my mom and dad made it three months without any new pregnancies as of last Thursday, so I think they’re actually going to stick to their ‘no more kits’ promise this time.”

“Oh thank God,” said Nick, visibly relaxing into his chair. “No offense, Carrots, but my name memory banks ran out somewhere around the 300 mark. Had to dump out the names of all the districts and five ice cream flavors just to remember your parents are Bonnie and Stu. And let me just tell you, I would be completely lost at the ZPD if everybody didn’t wear nametags.”

Judy hmmed as she pushed her finished plate away. Now that the food was finished and a pause in the flow of conversation had come, she couldn’t help but feel a prickle of annoyance at the fox’s joke. “No offense taken, Nick. We bunnies are already used to the whole being-forgotten thing you’ve got going on nowadays.”

The sight of Nick wilting where he sat gave Judy a certain bitter satisfaction. Marian, on the other hand, bristled. “Judy! What in the world brought that on, girl?”

“Nothing,” said Judy, refusing to look at the elder fox, looking only at Nick. “10 months of nothing. Nothing but brief texts in the morning and sometimes the afternoon to let me know your son hadn’t dropped out of my life completely!”

Now Marian turned her affronted look on Nick. He, too, refused to look her. The whirring of tiny gears sounded as he flexed the fingers of his prosthetic hand. “I kept thinking. You would come back. To Zootopia! What else can I even say about this!? You’d come, get back to work, we’d find a nice apartment together, maybe adopt one or a dozen kids, the works!”

“Nick—”

Judy jumped to her feet, standing on her chair to better glare at the fox who dared call himself her husband. “You never asked me! You never asked me to do that, or if I ever wanted to do that, and, and…” She sniffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her arm before thrusting her ring finger out, the wedding band dull in the weak kitchen light. “And this became a joke to the family! ‘Hey Judy, where’s that fox of yours?’ ‘Hey Judy, put on the ring!’ ‘Judy, aren’t you forgetting something?’ Every morning! But no, I… I never…”

Nick’s face, his ears pressed flat to his head, the crushed look in his eyes, was all suddenly too much. Fighting back a sob, Judy dropped from the chair and marched out of the kitchen to the guest room, slamming the door to drown out Nick’s shout for her to come back.

***

“And they all just ignored me, Honey! Like I wasn’t even there! Like I didn’t even exist!”

No word came from the honey badger sitting in bed, clacking away on her laptop. Beth paused in her pacing around the bunker long enough to ball her fists and glare at her girlfriend, comfy as she was in her pink nightgown, draped in her pink blankets, propped up by half a dozen pink pillows nearly as big as the honey badger, before huffing and resumed wearing a groove in the carpeting. As she went she stripped and threw off her police uniform, exchanging it for a ZPD tee sized for a wolf as a makeshift nightgown.

“And it’s not even like I ask for much, right? Let Wilde-Hopps have most of the attention, I’ve never seen them eat real food, maybe they need the attention for sustenance! But would one tiny, little ‘Joining them in their investigation is Officer Bethany Blaine, first hare officer’ really be that hard for even ONE reporter to say? There were enough of them out there for the odds to at least slightly favor me!”

“Beth,” said Honey. “Come to bed. You’re ranting and need a hug.”

Though still seething, Beth did as asked and crawled up to Honey’s side. The badger handed her a pillow, which Beth grabbed and proceeded to scream into for a good, long minute. By the end of it she flopped down lifeless, eyes to the ceiling covered in a map of Zootopia and all of its districts, too out of breath to rant any more.

“Feeling better?”

“Very,” said Beth, eyes tracing the long-since-memorized streets and train routes. “Where would I be without you?”

“Probably still maiding those meters,” said Honey, grinning as she continued typing away on her laptop. “While I’d still be drifting aimless from one message board to the next, lost after the reveal of the grand sheep conspiracy I’d rallied against for so long.”

She closed the laptop and side it on the nightstand, turning to face Beth fully. “Seriously, why don’t movies ever show what conspiracy theorists do after their theories have been shown correct? You assume it’s all fun and games, but no, you’re expected to get a ‘real job’ and stuff!”

“Yeah, said Beth, mentally reading off the districts now. Rainforest District, Meadowlands, Sahara Square. “It’s a big… big mystery…” Downtown, Tundratown, Nocturnal District, Outback Island… Beth paused, gears grinding as realization flickered on the edge of being grasped, before slipping away once more. “Aquarium... I should know this…”

***

Judy strained to keep her ears from perking at the sound of the guest room door opening behind her. She forced herself instead to continue lying on her side as if sleeping, listening as the door creaked shut and soft footfalls approached the bed. The mattress shifted as another weight climbed onto it, but Judy stayed firm.

A minute of silence passed, breaking at the click of a button followed by Nick’s rough, hollow voice. “I’m sorry, Judy. I really am just a dumb fox.”

Click.

Judy squeezed her eyes shut tighter, keeping the tears in. She loosed a shaky breath and held up her carrot pen recorder, scuffed and worn by the long years but still containing that all-important recording.

Click. “I really am just a dumb bunny.” Click.

An arm wrapped around her middle as Nick lay down behind her, head resting atop hers. “I’m sorry, Judy. I’m really sorry. You’re right. I never asked, just… assumed. You’ve always been such a source of strength for me. I forgot…”

Judy wriggled around, pressing her face against Nick’s chest, only realizing then how much she’d missed his scent. “I’m sorry, Nick. I knew, just knew, that today with the reporters would happen, but I never talked to you about it, not in any of our text conversations. I’d already been the subject of harsh media attention before, with the Night Howler crisis. I didn’t…

“Shhh…” Nick nestled closer against her, scratching behind one of her ears like in the good old days. “We’re here now, good or bad media attention, and we’re gonna face it together like we always do. Wilde-Hopps, the unbeatable team!”

“Yeah,” said Judy, smiling in the dark. “The unbeatable team.”


	6. Chapter 6

“ _Come on, Nicky! Play ball with us! It’s spring!”_

_Nick looked back and forth between the gaggle of fawning bunny kits gathered in front of him and Judy beside him on the front porch bench, who looked more amused by the situation by the second. “Well? Go on, Mr. Wilde-Hopps. Show us country folk how a real city slicker plays ball.”_

_A chorus of giggles rose from the watching bunnies, making Nick thank the Maiden Marian for his red fur to hide his blush. He coughed, shifting on the bench so his old Pawaiian shirt didn’t bunch up so much around the back. “Er, well, I don’t really think I put on enough deodorant today and there’s an old wife’s tale that rabbits go absolutely bonkers at a sweaty fox’s—”_

_He didn’t even realize he’d been running a hand over the strange, unfamiliar curves and metals of his new prosthetic arm until Judy took that hand in hers, squeezing and smiling up at him. “Nick, please… my siblings really want to play with you before you go to the police academy. Just once?”_

_Nick groaned and looked away, never having been able to resist when Judy’s eyes got all big and wet. “Okay, okay, I guess I should before I end up needing another hand from you crushing that one.”_   
_Judy eeped and pulled back, her grey fur doing far less to hide her blush as the children around them giggled and made “Oooh!” noises. Nick laughed with them as he hopped off the bench. He stretched his arms up over his head and shot Judy a toothy grin, before following the now-cheering bunny horde as it stampeded toward the nearest empty field._

_“Have fun, Nick!”_

_“Always do, Carrots!”_

“Nick. Nick! NICK!”

A sharp jab to his shoulder snapped Nick from his daydream. He jerked, looking around in half a panic before remembering he was in a ZPD cruiser, driving from headquarters to northern Tundratown to check up on the one employee for Tundratown Truckers who records said was out sick from work and therefore, they hoped, still alive and able to shed light on the situation.

“Earth to Nick, you still with me?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” He coughed, rubbing the back of his prosthetic forearm and thanking the Maiden Marian once more that the bunny in the driver’s seat couldn’t see his blush. “But uh, what was the question?”

Judy huffed, rolling her eyes as she made a left turn. Outside a light rain fell, almost more of a mist, turning the cheerful shops and pedestrians going about their normal lives unfamiliar and remote. “I said, I’m going to go see Fru Fru this evening if I can find the time, do you want to come with? She just lost her dad, I imagine she’s going to need all the friends she can get for a while.”

Nick frowned and looked out the side window, watching as a train sped over a lake toward the Rainforest District. He remembered his long-gone days of working with the Bigs. He’d never interacted much or gotten too familiar with the boss’ daughter, but she’d always been polite and friendly. And as cops, it had mostly been Judy being Fru Fru’s friend and their main “in” with the Bigs. But still… “Yeah, I’m in. Should probably talk with her anyway about anything her dad might’ve known about ‘Jack Savage’ anyway.”

“That’s… not really what I had in mind, Nick.”

“Yeah… I know.” Nick yawned, cursing the rain. It always put him in a weird mood. “Guess this whole thing is rattling me, Carrots. You didn’t know good ol’ Mr. Big like I did. Not as long as I did, at least. He just… always had this feeling… being in-control. That he’s gone is just…”

“Weird?”

Nick nodded. Through the window he watched them cross a bridge, the rain falling behind them as they transitioned into the more wooded area of Tundratown. He knew it a poor place to live, practically its own separate community. Or at least it had been, back in the day. A lot of time had passed since, though.

Following the GPS, Judy kept them driving through the woods for several miles more, before a turnoff in the road brought them to a secluded and thoroughly trashy trailer park. A quick word with the raccoon manning the gate for directions and they crawled through the winding, aimless pathways that seemed more grown than planned out, mindful of children playing in the snow. Nick did his level best to ignore the stink eye aimed their way from more than a few of the surrounding trailers. Here was one part of the job he certainly hadn’t missed.

The mobile home they eventually parked in front of looked better than most in the park, in that at least all its windows were in place, its short lawn had been kept in good order, and the earthy-brown van next to it looked like it could actually start. Even so, Nick kept wary as he and Judy trudged through the snow to the front door, letting her take the lead in knocking. “Mr. Lovehog? It’s the ZPD, we’d like to ask you a few questions.”

Nick counted down from 10 in his head. When he reached 0 and no answer came he glanced around to the nearby houses before speaking, low so that only Judy could hear. “I’m going around to the back. Try again once I’m out of sight.”

“Be careful, Nick. We have a knack for showing up when the trouble’s happening.”

“Hey.” He turned to walk backwards around the mobile home, shooting her a smile. “It’s me!”

The look she shot him at that said it all. Chuckling, Nick turned back around and circled to the mobile home’s back, past a table, some benches, a kiddie pool, up to a door near-identical to the front. He listened with ears perked for Judy’s second round of knocking, and then for any sounds of movement from inside the building.

Half a minute passed, and then a full minute. When nothing was heard he sighed and knocked on the back door. “Sir, this is a serious issue and we have reason to believe you are in dang—”

“NICK!”

At Judy’s scream he ran, nearly tripping over himself as he rushed back to the mobile home’s front. He found his partner standing at the back of the van, its rear doors opened and a miserable look upon her face. As he drew closer he heard a sound as well, like a phone ringing.

“Judy, what—”

He looked in the van and groaned. There lay Mr. Lovehog, the boar sprawled out in the back of his own van with a noose wrapped tight around the his neck. A cell phone lay atop his belly, vibrating as it rang.

“That’s what got me over here,” said Judy, nodding to the phone. “It just started ringing all of a sudden…”

“Better get on the radio,” said Nick. He’d already climbed into the van and knelt beside the boar’s body. Careful not to touch anything else, he picked up the phone with his prosthetic hand and answered. “Hello?”

“Hi, Ju—oh, it’s the fox.” The voice coming through was low and throaty, as if the speaker smoked too much or had some metal down in his throat. “A shame. I was really hoping Judy would answer. I’m a big fan.”

“Aren’t we all.” Nick got back out of the van and looked around. Aside from Judy at their cruiser he didn’t see anyone other than the cubs in the distance. That didn’t matter much, though, Nick knew. The caller could have been in one of the other trailers, or perched in a tree. “I’m going to take a shot in the dark and ask if maybe I’m talking to the kind of fan Lieutenant Wilde-Hopps should get a restraining order for?”

“Eh, wouldn’t be my first. The name’s Jack, don’t forget it. And don’t feel bad, Mr. Wilde-Hopps. I’m a fan of you too. That’s why I want to give the both of you a warning.”

Nick joined Judy at the cruiser letting her listen in to the conversation as well. “Oh, a warning? That’s way more generous than most other murderous psychopaths we’ve had to deal with. Lay it on me, Jacky-boy.”

A laugh, the kind Nick might have let out back in the day to help get friendly with a mark before the inevitable hustle. “You two are a train barreling down the wrong track, and all the little people of the city are gathering to watch the inevitable crash. Give up now while you’re still… eh, maybe not ahead, but at least breaking even.”

“Uh-huh,” said Nick, glancing at Judy. “And by ‘little people’, do you mean that figuratively, or as in like literally mice and shrews and—”

Nick heard a click, followed by nothing. He looked down at the phone and saw the call had been ended from the other side. “He… hung up on me? Who does that!?”

“Mass murderers, apparently.” Judy sighed and hopped back into her seat, reaching to grab their crime scene kit out from under the dash. “CSI will be here in 10, guess we better get this place cordoned off. I hope Officer Blaine’s having better luck on her end.”

“Yeah,” said Nick, dropping the cell phone into an evidence back. “Because at this rate, bodies are just going to start dropping from the sky when we walk down the street.”

***

_“Ma’am, put your hands up and step away from the computer!”_

_Eyes wide and fearful, the honey badger in dingy overalls to match the dingy apartment looked back and forth between Beth and the computer in front of her. A window was open on the computer, an executive sign-in page for some tech company or other, numbers and letters flickering through the box in search of the password. “Officer, you gotta let me finish! I’ve been tracking this guy for months! If he gets into this company we’re talking about millions and millions of dollars lost!”_

_Beth narrowed her eyes and stepped further into the room. “Millions have already been lost. You’re not saying that you’re not the Highway Hacker, are you?”_

_At this the badger laughed and gestured to the threadbare apartment around them, which aside from a cork board riddled with photos connected by strings and the desk with its computer, was absolutely barren. “You think any mammal with millions to her name would live in this dump!?”_

_Beth blinked, biting her lip as she lowered her tranq gun halfway. “Then… what are you doing?”_

“What are you doing, Beth? Beth? Beth!”

The shout snapped Beth from her daydream. The hare nearly fell from her rolling chair, ears lighting up with a blush as she glanced around the crowded ZPD computer labs before looking back at the irate timber wolf at whose table she’d been waiting at. “Er, sorry, I got… nostalgic. What were you saying?”

Wolford rolled his eyes but said no more, turning his chair back to the computer in front of him. “Well lass, I’m sorry to say that so far I’m not finding anything at all in our criminal databases on a criminal named Jack Savage. I’ve shot a few similar questions to friends in other cities and the ones that’ve gotten back to me say ‘bout the same.”

Beth punched her palm. “Dang it! Nobody’s heard of this guy?”

“Far as I can tell, no. Least not at the city level.” He shrugged, looking apologetic. “Sorry, Blaine. It was a good idea. From what I’ve heard I’d have thought this Savage fellow some other city’s crime lord looking to expand into Zootopia too. Heck, might be he still is, just with a different name. ‘Jack Savage’ doesn’t sound too much like an actual rabbit name, now does it?”

“I wouldn’t know,” said Beth, standing up. She did her level best to keep her voice calm. “I’m a hare, not a rabbit.”

Wolford winced. “Right, my bad. Sorry, lass, I—”

“No no, it’s okay.” She tried smiling, tried hard. “It’s something you just get used to, you know? Anyway, if you’ve got nothing else I’ll just get out of your fur.”

“Actually,” Wolford said as she started to turn away, catching her attention with the low, conspiratorial tone his voice took. “There uh, might be something else, if you can keep it quiet for now, lass.”

She raised an eyebrow but sat back down, leaning in as he motioned her closer. “What? What is it?”

Wolford cast a glance around at the other techs in the lab before answering. “Had some of my lads trying to piece together the computers from Tundratown Truckers this morning, but they were all too shot up to be salvageable.”

“Okay…”

Wolford continued. “But then, blessed be, Bertrand from down in the Garage comes up to the labs with the GPS systems from a few of the delivery vehicles with the bright idea of trying to get something from them! Oh, I could have kissed the old bear!”

Beth grinned, liking where this story was going. “Why, Wolford, you got a new date for this Friday now?”

The wolf rolled his eyes again, but grinned along with her. “Saturday, and I get the feeling it’s gonna be a looong weekend. But anyway, back on topic. A lot of the older delivery routes had been wiped from the devices, but I found a few from the past week that raised some eyebrows. The construction yards in the Nocturnal District for the new HiteTech Industries branch coming in to Zootopia, the old Outback Island train station, somewhere in the Meadowlands, though that one was incomplete so I can't say where exactly… and City Hall.”

Beth gaped. Wolford nodded. “Aye, lass. Too early to start pointing fingers or even saying it out loud, but keep your ears primed, won’t ya? We just might have another Lionheart or Bellwether situation brewing.”

“Great, because that’s exactly what we need during an election…” Beth frowned, thinking through the list Wolford had given. Again the thought of Outback Island sparked a flare of insight for her. If she could only grasp it…

“Er, Blaine? You’re looking a little strained there. The uh, the restroom’s just through that door and down the hall…”

“What?” She blinked at the remark, before shaking her head and standing again. “No, it’s not that, I just… I need to go look into something. I’m forgetting something. Something about Zootopia itself.”

***

By the time Judy and Nick had finished up at the late Mr. Lovehog’s house, filled out all the paperwork and questioned all the neighbors and phoned all their reports to Chief Bogo, afternoon had turned to evening. By then Judy had a hard time thinking of anything other than getting out of the cold and getting food in her stomach, but whatever hidden stores of resolve had gotten her through the police academy kept her going, buoyed by a hastily-grabbed cup of coffee and the first radio station with music Nick could find. They still had a stop to make before home.

“Yeah  
A door left open  
A woman walking by  
A drop in the water  
A look in your eye  
A phone on the table  
A man on your side  
Or someone that you think that you can trust  
It's just  
Another way to die.”

"Carrots, I think the car has it in for us."

Judy chuckled and shook her head. Outside the snow-bound trees and hills passed half-hidden in the icy haze, like ghosts at dusk. "Sure it does, Nick. ZPD cruisers are secretly plotting to take over the city. They're in cahoots with the fire trucks."

“Another girl with her finger on the world singing do what you wanna hear  
Another gun thrown down and surrendered took away your fear  
Another man that stands right behind you looking in the mirror—”

"I knew it." Nick gave the dashboard a friendly tap. "Just remember who always changes your oil when you're on top of the world, bud."

Now Judy let out a full laugh. "You're a funny fox, Mr. Wilde-Hopps. Your wife must be quite lucky."

“Yeah  
A door left open  
A woman walking by  
A drop in the water  
A look in your eye  
A phone on the table  
A man on your side  
Or someone that you think that you can trust  
It's just  
Another way to die.”

Nick grinned and sipped on his coffee. "Not as lucky as your husband, Mrs. Wilde-Hopps."

Minutes later found them pulling up to the gates for the Big Estate. Before Judy had done more than set their cruiser into park a polar bear in a somber black suit stepped out from the shadows on the other side of the surrounding wall and walked toward them, giving her pause. She shared a look with look with Nick before rolling her window down and poking her head out. "Hey, Kevin. I know it's been a long time, but I'm here as a friend, not a cop. Is Fru Fru home?"

“She is,” spoke the polar bear, leaning down to Judy’s height as he did. “However, she, her husband, and her daughter are in mourning, and she has requested for there to be no visitors.”

“But surely—”

“I’m sorry, Officer Hopps,” and to his credit, Kevin did look genuinely sorry.

Judy sighed and slumped into her seat. It was no more than she expected, but less than she’d hoped for. Glancing over at Nick, Judy was surprised to find him frowning at a text on his phone.

Ignoring that for the moment, she looked back to Kevin. “We understand and will respect the Lady Big’s wishes. Although, if you could, would you mind passing along a message to her from me?” At the polar bear’s nod she smiled. “Please let Fru Fru know that Nick and I are deeply sorry for her loss, and if there’s anything… well, anything within the bounds of the law she needs, we’ll be there. We won’t rest until this killer has been brought to justice.”

“My friend, Mrs. Big wants revenge.” Kevin stood back up and backed away, back to his post by the fence. “But, ah, justice will do.”

There was nothing more to be said after that. Judy looked for a long lingering second on the mansion beyond the gate, the many unlit windows staring down at her telling her more of her old friend's pain than Kevin ever could, and then put the cruiser into reverse and backed out onto the route, putting it into drive to start the long ride back to the station. Her ears drooped as they went, Judy driving on autopilot as she mourned for one of her oldest Zootopia friends.

“Well,” said Nick after a moment, voice full of forced cheer. “We might have a little uh, good news to end the day on.”

“Oh? Judy perked an ear, remembering the text her fox had been looking at earlier. “Blaine find anything?”

In answer Nick cleared his throat and took on the voice of reading the gravest of official documents. “Figured out what Aquarium meant. Meet me at the train station tomorrow at 8 AM.”

“Well,” said Judy, “it sounds like a date.”


	7. Chapter 7

Judy bolted upright in bed, strangling the scream before it reached her lips until it turned into a coughing fit. "Ni-Ni-cough-Nnnick!"

An answer came at once as the fox in question sat up in bed beside her, green eyes shining in the dark of the room as he wrapped her up in a hug. “Judy! Judy, calm down, I’m here! I’m here.”

Heart hammering, Judy turned and buried her face against Nick’s chest, sobbing into the thick, creamy fur. For a while they simply sat there, no words passing between them as Judy cried and Nick stroked down her head, neck, and back. They stopped only when Judy’s phone alarm sounded and she had to break the embrace to turn the alarm off. Then they sat there in silence a moment longer, a gulf once more between them.

“You’re still having the nightmares? After all this time? Why didn't you say anything until now?”

The hurt was clear in Nick’s voice. Judy, easily imagining the look on his face, dared not look up at him. She’d set her alarm extra early their first night back so that she could wake up before the nightmare got her and alerted Nick. But they’d been so drained coming back from the Big Estate, she’d forgotten… “I guess a little of me hoped they would stop… now that I’m back here…”

A deep breath from the fox near her, Judy imagining him schooling his features into something not hurt, not sad. She gritted her teeth at the thought and stood, grabbing for her equipment. “Come on, if we hurry we should have time for a nice breakfast at least before having to meet Blaine.”

“Right,” said Nick after a moment, rising to get dressed alongside her. “Just gotta focus on the case.”

***

Coffee, donuts, and a bus took them as far as ZPD headquarters, where they checked in to let Bogo know they were on the clock, see if any progress had been made on identifying the bullet casings from Tundratown Truckers, and made the briefest of small talk with Clawhauser. From there they took a cruiser to the Savannah Central train station, arriving just as the early morning business rush was dying down. The entire way, Judy wore a mask of careful indifference, giving the awkward stares and pointedly obvious camera phones no more attention than she would anything else in the environment.

“It’ll get better,” said Nick, as their loitering near the station’s juice bar reached the five-minute mark. “Just gotta solve this case and all those glares will turn to looks of admiration once more.

“Hmm.”

“And heck,” he continued, stretching his arms above his head. “Even if that doesn’t work out, just give some time and they’ll find something else new or interesting to stare at. That’s how life is, Carrots.”

“Hmm.” Judy sat on a bench, knuckles propping up her head as she watched a TV attached to the juice bar. Gazelle, dressed in a simple but refined lavender business suit, fielded questions from some talk show host or other, doing a remarkable job of ignoring several pointed remarks at her history or turning them to her advantage. “Weird to think, isn’t it?”

Nick joined her by the bench. “What, that she used to dance around on a stage in a skirt that didn’t leave anything to the imagination, or that she’s currently in the lead? And the biggest question of all: is there a connection?”

Judy elbowed him in the ribs, but smirked all the same. “Har har. But no, I don’t think her being in the lead for mayor is all that surprising. I still remember that amazing speech for peace during the savage predator crisis Bellwether caused. I’ve believed since I first heard it she could do amazing in politics.”

“Aw, don’t sell yourself too short, Carrots.” Nick smirked and patted her head. “They still play recordings of your ‘Try to make the world a better place’ speech in the police academy. Not a bad legacy, I think, all things considered.”

Judy started at the word ‘legacy’, turning from the TV to Nick with a dozen questions on her mind. “What do you—”

“Wilde-Hopps!”

Judy tried not to groan at the voice of the hare she was quickly coming to see as the ultimate mood-killer. She saw Blaine weaving through the crowd toward a blue and black train readying to depart, waving to them with one hand and holding tight to a badger in a tank top and camo pants with the other. "Wilde-Hopps, hurry before you miss it!"

"Nick, come on!”

They ran through the milling mammals, managing to join their fellow officer just as the doors slid shut and the train lurched into motion, leaving Nick holding his tail close in a panic. "Yikes!"

"That was a close one," said Blaine, smoothing her ears back as she headed toward the front of the train. A dozen’s dozen mammals sitting or standing in the train car, and not a one of them paying attention to the trio of cops among them. "Sorry if I kept you both waiting too long. Someone," and here she glared at her companion, "thought it'd be a good idea to turn my alarm off."

"What? You stayed up half the night on the computer! I thought you'd finally caught the conspiracy bug!"

“It was research!” Blaine poked the honey badger following her in the chest, right on a Junior Detective sticker Judy just then noticed. “Important research! So please, Honey, behave and don’t make me regret pulling a Nick Wilde with you!”

“Pulling a… Nick Wilde…?” Judy shared a look with Nick as they followed along behind, before putting the obvious question there aside for later and holding her hand out to the badger. “Right, well, I am Lieutenant Judy Wilde-Hopps. You must be Officer Blaine’s civilian informant?”

“Righty there, officer!” Walking backwards to face Judy, the badger laughed and clapped her hand, leaving it stinging. “Honey Badger, you can call me! Yeah, like my species, only I think I pull it off way better than Gazelle. Plus, like, what kind of dumb nickname could you get from Honey, am I right?”

This got Judy grinning. “Yeah, I get you. Hey Nic, looks like she’s got you beat… uh, Nick? You okay there?"

The fox, looking as if Christmas had come early, slowly smiled. "Honey-Frosted Carrots. It’s… beautiful."

Honey started laughing, stopping as Blaine glared at her. Judy groaned, covering her blushing face with her hand. "Niiiick..."

“Right, right, sorry.” He coughed and put on his shades, looking anything but sorry. “Nick Wilde-Hopps, pleasure to meet you. Now then, uh, anyone want to maybe fill us in on why we’re riding the Outer Sea Line?”

A pause came in the conversation as they reached and ascended the stairs near the front of the train to the upper observation level. Judy could not help but pause and take in the view of the city whizzing by beyond the windows, reminding her so much of that first wondrous journey into Zootopia. Aside from a rabbit and wolf pair on a bench at the front who seemed far more interested in each other than the view outside, their little cop group had the deck to themselves.

“Okay,” said Blaine, going to the right-hand windows before turning around to look at Judy and the rest. “So yesterday I was discussing some of the Tundratown Truckers records with Wolford, and it got me thinking about Icenov's 'Aquarium' again. It was just one of those things where you KNOW you know something, you know?"

Judy nodded. She knew.

"Right, so I started looking into Zootopian history--"

“While in bed, I might add.”

“Hush, Honey!” The hare’s entire face was blushing. Judy tried her hardest not to giggle, doing a better job of it than Nick. “L-looking at maps of Zootopia on my laptop, because that’s a thing I do when I need to think and, and… stuff, and that’s when I had this… brain… spark… realization thing?”

“I am well aware of brain spark realization things,” said Judy, smiling and inwardly relieved that she wasn’t the only person who had trouble explaining those moments.

Blaine smiled and went on. “Right, well I remembered that “Aquarium” is old Podunk slang for the Ocean Bay Complex!”

Judy blinked, making a little “ohh” noise as beside her, Nick facepalmed. Past the hare, past the wolf and bunny couple, she saw far ahead and approaching rapidly a steel and glass tunnel entrance that dived a mere dozen feet on into Zootopia Bay. She went to the glass and looked out, watching the tunnel approach with something between excitement and nervousness. Nervexcited? “The giant underwater complex where land and ocean mammals can interact more easily. I don’t think I’ve ever been called to go down into the Ocean Bay District in my entire ZPD career. Nick, you ever go down there?”

“Once,” he said, joining her at the glass, Blaine and Honey to their right. “Did a job for a really weird narwhal. Thought I’d never get the smell of fish out of my fur.”

The laugh that bubbled up Judy’s throat at this thought caught her off-guard, making her hardly notice as the train plunged into the tunnel. Then the tunnel dove into the bay water and she gasped. Everything outside the train and its mostly see-through tunnel was a bright and dazzling blue. She could see schools of otters and seals in business suits swimming between buildings styled after coral reefs, two dolphins in construction armor darted to and fro among clusters of underwater lampposts, making her wonder at the amount of effort that went into maintaining even this marginal connection between the two worlds. A walrus in some sort of toga lazed about near one of the tunnel’s support pillars, seemingly being berated by a tiger in a wetsuit. A seal swam along with a pair of clippers, tending to fields of seaweed like one tends to hedges. In some kind of underwater mesh cage two teams of dolphins batted around a ball with their tails, trying to get it in the other team's goal.

“Wow…”

“Wow?” Blaine’s grin could be heard clear in her voice. “No, Lieutenant, THAT is wow.”

The train turned left and leveled out its descent, and that’s when Judy saw the Ocean Bay Complex emerge from the distance. Her jaw dropped at the size of the structure, at least half-again as large as the Zootenial Stadium above in Zootopia proper, a dome-like mashing together of stone, steel, and glass, into and through which Judy could see countless more glass tunnels and corridors connecting. The entire thing stood 20 feet above the sea floor on countless metal-supported stone pillars, among which swam seemingly hundreds of mammals. “Okay, yeah, that IS wow!”

The train slowed as the tunnel brought it into the Complex through a series of pressure doors, coming to an eventual stop in what looked for all intents and purposes like an ocean-themed twin of the train station they had started from, only totally inside and with far, far more steel. They followed the wolf and bunny out of the train to the platform, Judy only barely keeping herself from gawking like a day-one tourist with the understanding that Nick would never, ever let her live it down. But even then…

“Careful, Fluff, I’m pretty certain flies aren’t part of a rabbit’s diet.”

Judy snapped her mouth closed and glared at her husband. To Blaine she said, “So what do you think Icenov meant by sending us down here?”

“Good question.” The hare went to a relatively secluded stretch of wall near a porthole and leaned against it, arms folded. “Historically speaking, this was a major area of smuggling in the days of Prohibition. A lot harder to patrol the entire water, you know? Plus there’s still a lot of fishing business that comes through here.”

“Which means,” said Nick, “maybe this is a backup in case Tundratown Truckers ever got compromised. Which it did the other day. Thoroughly.”

“Wow, Nick, morbid much?” Judy sighed and shook her head. Looking around, she saw mammals of all sorts going about their business, leaving and coming in through tunnels spread around the cavernous station or perched at computer terminals in a corner café. Having never been there before, Judy thought things seemed normal enough.

“Still,” she continued, “it’s probably our best avenue to start on. If fishing’s a thing here than there will be businesses, warehouses. We’ll start with them first, see if anything suspicious has—”

“Excuse me, officers, but I have an alternative theory.”

Judy, Nick, and Blaine looked at Honey, who somehow during the course of their conversation had procured for herself a coffee. At Judy’s questioning look the honey badger shrugged, aimed a thumb over her shoulder at the corner café, and then held up a flyer dominated by a photo of Mayor Swinton.

“Today!” read the flyer, “Mayor Swinton asks for YOUR vote! See her today at the Grand Moon Pool, and learn how Swinton speaks for you!”

“Yeah,” said Nick. “That could be a pretty big problem. Suppose for a moment that not all of the explosives were used in Sahara Square?”

“Oh God.” Judy looked around at the dozens of mammals just in the train station alone, the hundreds more that could be in the “Aquarium”, far underwater and kept safe by far-too-fragile glass. “Oh God,” she said again, before grabbing for her radio. “Dispatch, this is Judy Wilde-Hopps, put me through to the chief.”

A moment of static, and then, "Bogo here. What've you got, Judy?"

"A possible major emergency," sir." Judy glanced around to make sure none of the passerby looked to be listening in before continuing. "Officer Blaine figured out Icenov meant the Ocean Bay Complex last night when he said 'Aquarium.' At first we thought maybe this was a backup route now that the warehouse is taken down, but Sir—"

"Mayor Swinton's campaign rally," said Bogo, finishing the thought. "Oh damn it. Double damn it! Even ignoring the kind of chaos killing her would cause, we're looking at casualties in the hundreds if the Complex gets destroyed!"

Judy swallowed, running through the math of how quickly they could evacuate that many people on the train and not liking how the math turned out. “I’m here with Nick, Blaine, and Honey Badger. What… what can we do?”

“The Fangmeyers are down there already,” Bogo said after a long moment. “ZPD has a presence at every rally. I’ll appraise them of the situation. You need to get to the local security and—”

SCREEEEEECHEEECHEEEE—

Judy yelped and pulled back from the radio, the others around her flinching as she fumbled to turn it off. “Sweet cheese and crackers! What in blazes was that!?”

“Sure wasn’t any signal jammer I ever heard.” Nick whined, rubbing his ears. “Ow…”

“I’ve heard something like that before,” said Honey. She seemed remarkably unphased by the auditory attack from moments before. “There’s another signal overpowering whatever band your radios use. Probably just random gibberish getting shouted out. Harder to get around by going to another channel because, you know, EVERYONE would have to know which channel to change to.”

Another seconds-long burst of static sent them all flinching again, Blaine hastily turning her radio back off. “They must have multiple going at once. I guess we can’t hope for Bogo getting through to the Fangmeyers.”

“That means we’re on our own.” Judy looked over to the train, watching it depart back to Zootopia-proper. “At least until Bogo gets backup down here. He’ll know something’s wrong from the radios.”

If Nick rolled his eyes any harder at that, they’d roll right out of his head. “That’s great. Perfect. Chief Buffalo Butt bringing in the cavalry to save us at the last minute is a time-honored tradition among us Wilde-Hopps. But what do we do until then? Put SCUBA gear on everyone and push them out an airlock?”

Judy shared a look with Blaine. Nick groaned. “I was not seriously suggesting that! I mean, I assume this place would have more than enough emergency gear for everyone if it came down to it—”

“Or we could make everyone jog up the train tunnel!” Honey suggested.

“—but I’d rather not have to get in that ‘save everyone in a panic’ situation to begin with!” Nick finished, turning a stare at the badger.

“That’s the plan,” said Judy. Spotting a nearby kiosk, she ran to it and pulled up a map of the complex. “Nick, get to the main security hub for this place and alert them to the situation. Who we’re dealing with, what we’re dealing with, and how we hope to deal with it. Honey, as an officer of the law I am empowering you to commandeer one of those café computers. Nobody’s panicking over there, so Wi-Fi still seems to be working. Blaine, we’ll go to the rally at this ‘Grand Moon Pool’. We MIGHT just be dealing with an old-fashioned assassination attempt.”

“Got it.”

Nick sighed and shook his head, grabbing a physical map for himself. “Man, when did life get to the point where assassination attempts could be old-fashioned?”

“That’s something to ponder some other time.” Judy checked her foldout baton, cuffs, stun gun, and emergency aid kit were still secure to her belt, before starting for the tunnel marked for the Grand Moon Pool. “Let’s roll, Blaine.”

They made it ten feet before a shout from behind made them stop. Judy looked in time to see Honey run over and embrace Blaine in a hug that at the least got bones creaking, the hare’s face lighting up in a blush her snow-white fur did nothing to hide.

“Be careful, Beth, please. I’ve suddenly got a real bad feeling about all this.”

After a moment of struggling for breath, Beth smiled and patted Honey’s back. “Careful as I ever am. Just… need… to breathe…”

Honey yelped and let go, blushing as she backed up and scratched her chin. “Sorry, sorry. Er… to the computers I go then, heh heh…”

Judy watched the pair as they turned to go on their separate ways, smiling despite everything as she turned to see Nick watching just the same. “You be safe too, Slick. I’d hate to have to pull your tail out of the fire again.”

“Aw, you beat me to it.” Nick’s words joked, but his frantic tail and forced smile told the truth of his worry. Things rarely went right when they separated.

Unable to spare the time for one last look, Judy turned and ran to catch up to Beth.


	8. Chapter 8

The Grand Moon Pool, as it turned out, was a giant artificial beach area taking up the entire bottom level of the complex, dotted with rocks and trees, dominated at the center by a moon pool thirty feet across from every side, opening directly into the bay beyond. Double sets of airlocks at every entrance insured that no changes in air pressure would allow the water to flood into the complex, while land and sea mammals alike could lounge around and frolic together in comfort.

Judy and Beth found the raised platform for Mayor Swinton’s rally at the very edge of this pool, the pig standing at a podium atop it and speaking to the countless mammals gathered around the pool’s other edges or poking their heads out of the water. Beside her were a pair of deer bodyguards, while Judy could just make out the tigress Officer Fangmeyer at the left-hand edge of the platform and the wolf Officer Fangmeyer at the right-hand edge.

“You take right, I take left,” she said to Beth, nodding to each indicated officer. “Fill them in on what’s going down. And keep an eye on the crowd while you’re at it!”

“Got it, Boss. Be careful.”

Returning the sentiment, Judy turned and started through the crowd of milling mammals, figuring that less likely to seem panic-worthy than going around the crowd. She whispered her apologies and excuse-me’s as she hopped over mice and slid between horses, stomach dropping as she noticed how many wolves and rabbits she could see around her, her thoughts turning to Honey’s description of the wolf and rabbit that interrupted the crime lord meeting. She kept one ear turned to the crowd, listening for the slightest hint of anything dangerous, the cocking of a gun or the sliding of a knife from its sheath. The other she kept turned to Swinton at her podium, almost as worried about the mayor as she was everything else, considering how the previous two mayors turned out.

“—and with the reforms already implemented during my current term, my re-election guarantees a stronger, more thorough integration between land and sea than ever seen in Zootopia’s history! This insures new jobs, new housing, and new opportunity for anyone willing to seek it”

Applause rang through the crowd. Judy ducked under a hammock some elephant had found the audacity to set up and found herself in a relative clearing in the crowd. Across the moon pool she could see Beth already in conversation with Adam Fangmeyer, while Carla Fangmeyer had at some point caught sight of Judy and kept her gaze on her. Judy waved to her, then said in sign language “Radios not working. Terrorist threat likely. Keep lookout for white wolf or striped rabbit.”

Fangmeyer’s eyes widened. She gave a short nod and turned her gaze to the crowd, the turn of her head so subtle most probably wouldn’t notice it.

“Furthermore,” Swinton continued, “I can promise with absolute certainty a renewed focus on law enforcement in my second term as your mayor. I’m talking better equipment, better training, and most important of all, better accountability! By this time next year, trust in the ZPD will be as certain as the sun rising every morning!”

More cheers and applause, this time even louder than before. Ignoring this and the way it made her stomach twist into knots, Judy allowed herself the briefest sigh of relief at having got her message across to Fangmeyer, before moving to restart her squirming through the crowd.

“Oh wow, Officer Judy Hopps! Can I have your autograph?”

Judy bit back her groan and turned to tell whatever mammal had noticed her that she was busy on police business. She froze, heart skipping a beat as she came face to face with a rabbit in a plain black suit and tie, his light-grey fur off-set by black stripes around his head and ears, Arctic-blue eyes contrasting the smile on his face.

“You… you…”

The tilt of Jack Savage’s ears turned quizzical. “Am incredibly handsome, yes, but if I remember right, you’re already taken. So alas, it is not meant to be.” His smile widened then as he held out the piece of paper and pen he held another inch. “So… I’m like, sorry if this is a bad time, but I am a really big fan of your work. You are such an inspiration. I mean that, truly.”

Hoping that Fangmeyer had noticed them by that point, Judy forced herself to smile as she looked from the other rabbit’s face to the outstretched items. “Of course, anything for a fan…” She turned, putting her handcuffs just the slightest bit forward, and reached a hand out as if to take the pen. “And who am I making this out to?”

“Jack Savage, ma’am.”

Judy smiled. “Exactly what I wanted to hear.”

CLICK.

Jack blinked and looked down at his left hand, a handcuff around the wrist. “Did… did you really just…?”

“Jack Savage, you are under arrest.” Judy kept her voice to a whisper as she turned the stunned rabbit around and twisted his arms behind his back to cuff them together. The few mammals standing next to them looking on in mild panic was enough for her at the moment. “You are charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, terrorism, destruction of property—”

“You can’t be serious.” The other rabbit sounded undecided between amusement and rage. “I just wanted to come get your autograph. How could you have possibly known any of that? Did one of the other bosses squeal on me? Were you friends with more than just Mr. Big?”

“That’s none of your business.” Judy turned him and gave a shove in the direction she figured the closest of the tunnels should be, flashing a reassuring smile to every mammal to catch her eye. One ear remained trained on Swinton fielding questions behind them as Judy made Savage walk. “You have the right to remain silent,” she continued whispering. “Anything you say can and will be used against you—”

“Of course, of course,” said Savage, voice finally settling on amusement. “This isn’t my first rodeo, I understand. Not one more word… just a question. Wherever might my wolf friend be?”

Judy paused, eyes widening. “She—”

THWACK—CRUNCH.

Judy jolted backward, stars exploding in her eyes. Her breath exploded out of her throbbing face as her back hit the sandy floor, sending a family of shrews scurrying and a number of other mammals stumbling, shouting in alarm. Her vision cleared enough in time to see Savage roll his handcuffed arms over his head, flaring jacket revealing a pistol holstered at his hip.

He reached for the gun. Judy flipped back to her feet, turning her momentum into a headbutt to his gut. Savage grunted and stumbled back, hands clasping the gun the same moment Judy’s hands did.

A moment’s wrestling for the weapon before a shot rang out, kicking up a plume of sand. Mammals around them screamed and turned tail, Judy catching out of the corner of her eye Swinton getting tackled to the ground by her bodyguards, Blaine joining them a moment later with tranq gun drawn and aimed hesitantly toward the two struggling rabbits. The Fangmeyers were nowhere to be seen from Judy’s position, maybe rushing to aid her, maybe directing the fleeing civilians to safe rou—

A two-fisted uppercut to Judy’s chin snapped her head back, breaking her grip on the gun. She heard Savage let out a laugh, recovering from the blow just in time to see him level the gun to her head.

Everything else, the sand, the screams, the rumble of mammals barreling past all around them, fell away before Judy. She saw in a blink her life flash before her, Gideon’s bullying, training at the academy, meeting Nick, saving Zootopia from Bellwether, their first kiss, the wedding ring—

The near-imperceptible click of metal on metal as Savage tightened his grip on the trigger and Judy broke free from her reverie to throw herself forward. The shot went wide, blowing off the top inch from her left ear in a spray of pain as Judy tackled him and kept going, ignoring his pounding fists on his back, screaming as she ran him full-charge into one of the trees scattered around.

There she kept the other rabbit pinned, ignoring the blood dribbling down her head from her ear as she delivered blow after blow upon him, punches, elbows, knees, shoulders; every striking surface she could bring to bear on this killer, this murderer, this grinning mockery of all rabbits every—

Wait, Judy’s gut told her. Grinning?

That and the ground starting to rumble were all the warning Judy got before the moon pools throughout the room erupted.

***

“What do you MEAN, all communications are down!?”

The dik-dik in the ill-fitting security uniform flinched back from Nick’s growl, something the fox felt only marginally bad for, and turned back around to the array of computer screens arranged along the far wall, providing most of the illumination to the darkened security room. “I, I mean just what I said, officer. Only a minute or two after that last train pulled in, something trampled all of our systems. Radios can’t work, phones can’t reach Zootopia-proper, phones get a busy signal. Even the Wi-Fi’s spottier than normal!”

Nick groaned, hearing absolutely everything he hadn’t been wanting to hear. “Well crap. Okay then. Our sheer inaccessibility will be like a beacon to everyone, going ‘Hey, look over here, something’s wrong and we need help!’ That’s that. Can anything in this room help us STOP whatever’s causing this, or are these computers all as much for show as my tail!?”

Letting out a huff, the dik-dik tapped buttons on the console faster than Nick could follow, pulling up video camera feeds on each of the screens. “Look, security feeds are still working all throughout the Complex. I’ve got the other guards out searching all the likely places for whatever device got plugged in to cause all this havoc, as well as a beluga technician outside coordinating sonar messages with a few dolphin runners. Communications are going to be back up as soon as there’s someone on the other side of the water for the dolphins to talk to.”

The bunny-sized deer rolled his chair back around to look at Nick. “All of that, plus Swinton’s guys doing regular sweeps for explosives or anything like that. Listen, friend. I don’t know how lax things get above-water to allow something like the Sahara Square attack to happen, but down here we can’t afford to get like that. There’s enough trying to make this place not work even before throwing the idea of bombs around!”

Something in that statement kept Nick from making the snide remark he’d had planned. He looked to the cameras, grin turning into a frown as he mentally ran through the vital locations: communications hub, air filters, power generators, outside support beams, security station—

“Man,” said the dik-dik, shaking his head and gesturing to the camera showing the Grand Moon Pool. “Look at all those people come to see some swine talk. As if any mayor’s ever actually kept to most of their sea mammal promises.”

“Yeah,” said Nick, distracted, pieces clinking around in his head as he stared at the opening directly into the bay surrounding Zootopia and the thousands upon thousands of gallons of pressure it represented. “Bunch of… rubes…”

The door to the security control room opened behind them, making the fur on the back of Nick’s neck bristle in sudden alarm.

“Hey!” shouted the dik-dik, already turned around in his chair and on his hooves. “Unless you’re part of Swinton’s posse, you can’t come in here. This is a restricted section!”

Nick turned, grabbing for the stun gun at his belt. The white wolf in the doorway was faster, drawing her own stun gun from the depths of her trench coat and firing before Nick could so much as raise his. Pain coursed through him as every muscle spasmed at once, a yowl that might have been his own echoing through the security control room. Then the next thing he knew he was staring up at the ceiling from the floor, sparks crackling distressingly from his prosthetic arm and all the rest of his body unresponsive to the too-simple request to MOVE.

“Oh God! Don’t hurt me, please!”

From his vantage point on the floor, Nick could only watch helplessly as the wolf stepped over him to the control consoles, grabbing the dik-dik completely around the waist with one hand and facing him toward the computers.

“Where are the door controls?”

“D-door controls? What a-are you ta-talking abou—”

The wolf squeezed. Something snapped and Nick couldn’t even flinch as the dik-dik screamed, upper body thrashing in pain, legs hanging limp and lifeless. “LLLLEFT! C-CORNER CONSOLE R-RE-RED BUTTONNNGH!”

“Thank you, very much” said the wolf, before cracking the dik-dik’s neck over the back of his chair and tossing him aside. She then rolled the chair out of her way and strode to the indicated console.

Nick stared at the lifeless mammal mere feet from his head, glassy eyes staring at nothing with terror. A growl rose in his throat, the paralysis of the shocked muscles finally starting to fade as he rolled himself to face the wolf’s back. “You monster. He just did as you asked! You didn’t have to kill him like that!”

“It was a mercy,” said the wolf, not looking his way as she input command after command into the computer. “Broken neck, fairly quick and painless. Drowning…” Computer screen in front of her displaying “EMERGENCY” in bold red letters, she pressed the seven red buttons arrayed before her and turned to look at Nick. From her coat she retrieved a pair of micro-rebreathers. “Utter agony.”

***

"I've pulled as many officers as I can to head to the Complex. We're loading onto police boats this moment. Any change to the situation down there?"

Honey looked away from her Muzzlebook chat with Chief Bogo to the crowds of mammals still rushing into the central train hub, some of them nursing wounds, some crying, all of them radiating fear like a thick stench. A tiger in a ZPD uniform looked to be trying to keep them all calm and organized, to little success.

Turning back to the computer, Honey started typing a response. "Everyone's panicked. Some kind of fight broke out between Judy and another rabbit, maybe Savage. Shots were fired. Don't know where she or anyone else is right now."

Several agonizing seconds passed as the cape buffalo typed out his response. "Understood, am calling for more medical teams—"

Honey's attention was snapped from the chat text by the sudden blaring of an alarm, loud enough to send a few rabbits and hares among the crowd staggering and clutching their ears. 10 seconds with the alarm blaring before, to Honey's immediate alarm, every door, gate, and porthole in sight opened. Every mammal there cried out as their ears popped from the sudden change in air pressure, followed by a deathly silence as a low rumbling echoed from deep down below, and with it, distant screams.

"Oh God." Honey half-jumped from her seat, hurriedly turning back to type out one last message to Bogo while she could.

"Every door's opened, place is flooding! Hurry!"

She just managed to hit send before the first rush of water, and mammals caught in the current, gushed up from the tunnel to the Grand Moon Pool.

***

Beth loved swimming, had loved it since the moment she learned how to swim. Many of her fondest childhood memories came from those long-past summer days when her family would go out to secluded Meadowlands lakes, or her victories on the high school swim team, or the five months after college she'd trained for the professional leagues before shifting her dream to law enforcement. She loved swimming.

Getting knocked off her feet by an explosion of water flooding the room with the force of a tidal wave was NOT the kind of swimming she loved. Tranq gun lost in the swirling currents, she fought to regain some sense of up and down as everything around her devolved into chaos. An elephant trumpeting bubbles tumbled past in one direction, a lion in the other, nearly slashing Beth with his claws as he kicked and thrashed. She ducked beneath him, curling her legs to kick off the elephant's side, up a dozen feet to the ever-dwindling space yet to be flooded.

With a gasp she breached the surface, shoulders shaking as she took deep lungfuls of air. All around was panic as mammals fought to stay afloat. Dolphins and other swimmers could be seen grabbing their land-bound brethren out of the Complex and to the surface, a sight that might've warmed Beth's heart if she wasn't one of those endangered mammals.

"Ma'am! Hold on, I'm coming!"

Beth waved the walrus away, toward a trio of floundering meerkats. "No, help them! I'm a cop, I can handle myself!"

I hope, she thought to herself as she ducked back into the water. She looked around and saw seven glass and steel tunnels leading from that room to all the rest of the Complex, each wide open to allow the flood of water to reach elsewhere. A few mammals had chosen to swim out that way, but if the water wasn't stopped, she knew, they'd have more luck fleeing through the moon pools.

Going up for another breath of air, Beth swam down to the closest of the tunnels. Grabbing hold of a handlebar to steady herself, she kicked the shiny red EMERGENCY button beside it as hard as she could. A red light flickered above the doorway before solid steel shutters slammed down over it, cutting off the flow of water in that direction.

Again Beth rose to the dwindling surface for breath, waving off a dolphin as she went to help an absolutely terrified llama instead. And then again she dove to another tunnel doorway, slamming the door override button and cutting it off as before.

By the time she dove for the final tunnel, Beth found herself eerily alone in the flooded room, all the rest either saved or beyond saving. She swam to the tunnel side of the door and found the emergency override button there, but when she hit it nothing happened.

_Fudgsicles._

Beth hit the button again, then again and again as she struggled not to panic. Lungs starting to burn, she glanced behind up the tunnel, before swimming around to the other side of the doorway and hitting the button there. The shutter slammed down before she could swim through.

_Double-fudgsicles._

Lungs screaming now for oxygen, Beth swam up to the surface, finding barely enough room by this point to get her head above water, and that with her ears folded down. The urge to cry rose alongside the water rising up her shoulders, her neck, up to her chin. She took a final deep breath moments before the rising tides reached her face and the room’s ceiling, leaving nowhere to go but down.

_Escape, must escape, must escape, get to open water, get to surface, escape._

Beth kicked off the ceiling for extra speed, gaze focused ahead as she swam down, down, down toward the central moon pool. Chairs, trees, tables, and stands floated about in the otherworldly calm around her, some she twisted to avoid, others she kicked off of for even the slightest gain in distance.

_Go, go, go go go, get out, out, God, out!_

Outstretched fingers grasped the edge of the moon pool for dear life. Beth hauled herself through, sudden vertigo hitting her as she paused, losing precious air bubbles as she struggled to reorient herself. A familiar ache started in her chest as she dragged herself along the bottom of the complex, racing now for the closest edge to let her ascend.

_Air. Air. God air, need air, please, can’t breathe can’t breathe—_

The metal hull of the Complex disappeared below (above, above!) her and she began to ascend slowly. Too slowly. Legs kicking, Beth’s hands struggled to unclasp and throw away her bulletproof vest to the encroaching darkness below.

_Can’t breathe no can’t breathe can’t breathe—_

Everywhere around looked faded to a dim blue, fading dimmer in Beth’s eyes as the seconds passed. She scrabbled for the surface still hundreds of feet above. Her limbs felt dead, her chest ready to burst. It was hard, so hard now to think, to will her legs to kick and her arms to grasp and her lips to remain sealed and not gasp for air, precious air. And slowly, so slowly, she felt her limbs… stop.

_Can’t… I can’t… Honey…_

Beth watched the bubbles stream from her mouth to the bright, sparkling surface above before all vision fled, barely feeling something hit her from below before the blackness took her.

***

When Nick returned to consciousness, it was to red lights flashing, alarms blaring, and one soaking-wet honey badger shaking him by the shoulders. "Wilde! Come on, Wilde! Get up! NICK!"

Nick groaned and slowly, body screaming its protest, forced himself up into a sitting position. His prosthetic arm hung dead by the elbow, forcing him to reach out for Honey's help to pull him to his feet. "What's... going on?"

"All the doors in the Complex opened at once," said Honey, moving to wring out her shirt once she seemed satisfied he wasn't going to keel over without her support. "It completely destroyed the air pressure keeping the moon pools in check and everything started flooding!"

Blinking back his headache from the alarms, Nick staggered fast as he could to the console he remembered Miss Black using. "It was the wolf you told us 'bout... Black... did something here. I don't..." He dragged his eyes over the myriad buttons in front of him, having no more clue what to do here than he did in the train Bellwether's cronies had been operating from. "Oh what I wouldn't do to have Carrots here right now..."

"I'm allergic to carrots," said Honey, the badger sidling in beside Nick and giving the red buttons a few experimental taps, "but I lurked in the depths of the doomsday preppers' guilds for a few years and learned a few things. Let me see what I can do."

Nick let her work, turning his attention to the cameras instead. He saw scenes of panic, mammals barely keeping afloat in some sections of the Complex and barely having to tread it in others. Yet nowhere was the water rising any more. "Looks like someone manually closed the doors to the Grand Moon Pool."

"Thank God for that," said Honey, claws a blur over the controls as she typed in commands. "We'd be up to our necks in water right now if it was still coming in. Just gotta..."

The alarms and flashing lights shut off. Nick sighed in relief, mirrored by more than a few of the mammals on-camera. Honey grinned and kept going. "Now that we can all think clearly, just gotta turn on the pumps..."

The most excruciating 15 seconds of Nick's life passed by, scored by the clack of computer keys and his nails against the desk. Then there came a CLICK, followed by a distant chugging noise that seemed to come from nowhere in particular. Nick let the smallest of grins flicker over his face as across the camera screens water could be seen draining from every flooded room. "You did it."

"Holy carp," said Honey, eyes wide as dinner plates as she looked over the camera feeds. "I DID do it."

Then she dropped in a dead faint. Nick flinched from the hard landing, before grabbing his radio and hesitating for only a moment before switching it on.

The blessed sound of dozens of voices engaged in rapid back-and-forth was like music to his ears. "Oh thank cheese and crackers everything's working again."

"Nick!?" Adam Fangmeyer's voice rang out loud and clear through the radio. Nick could just imagine the wolf officer's tail wagging. "Nick, we were worried sick! Where've you been through all this madness!?"

“The security control room,” he said, turning to scan through the cameras for his fellow cop. Nick found him in the train hub, sitting on a crate as a kudu set one of his arms in a splint. “Long story. Just got the water draining with a friend’s help. Who closed off the doors? Judy?”

The wolf on the screen gave the camera a wave with his good arm. Through the radio he said “No idea. Don’t think it was Judy, last I saw of her she was in a pretty vicious fight with that rabbit we’re on the lookout for. Savage, or something?”

Worry, kept in check with practiced ease, squirmed to life in Nick’s gut. He switched his radio back to a wider frequency. “Anyone seen Officer Judy Wilde-Hopps? Who closed off the Grand Moon Pool?” Another moment’s thought, hesitation. “Where’s Officer Blaine? Dispatch?”

“I know Blaine closed off at least some of the doors,” said Officer Carla Fangmeyer, voice aching even through the radio. Nick quickly found her on another camera, somewhere up the train tunnel, directing arriving paramedics. “Saw it as I was dragging a horse out of there. Never saw Judy once the flooding started, though.”

Worry turned to fear, clawing its way from Nick’s gut to his heart as he scanned through the camera feeds over and over. He saw bunnies, countless bunnies crying or hugging or helping the relief efforts or being helped, but not a one in the ZPD uniform. “D-Dispatch?”

“Blaine’s with Chief Bogo,” spoke up Clawhauser over the radio, the cheetah’s voice subdued but remarkably firm in the face of this latest tragedy to strike the city. “A beluga brought her to shore half-drowned. They’re rushing her to the hospital now.”

“Damn,” said both Fangmeyers at once. Then Carla said, “Nick, if you’re able, get out here. We need all the help we can—”

Nick barely heard her. He shook, breaths coming in ragged gasps some ignored part of his brain knew couldn’t be good, eyes burning as they searched through each camera feed, fear hatching to full-grown panic and roosting in his head.

“Nick? Officer Wilde-Hopps, come in!”

“Where…” Nick backed up, good arm seeking out a wall to lean on as his legs threatened to give out beneath him. “Where’s Judy?”


	9. Chapter 9

“—struck by terror unlike anything seen before, following the attempted destruction of the Ocean Bay Complex and the disruption of Mayor Swinton’s pro-sea mammal rally. Reports are still coming in, but the ZPD have reported at least 7 dead by the rapid flooding, with another 15 injured. This comes mere days after a bombing in Sahara Square—”

Beth felt warm sheets all around her, a bed beneath her that felt like it was trying to suck her sore body into its soft, yielding depths. Her eyes ached, blinding light scorching through her eyelids to render the world in hot yellows and oranges. Along with the TV, Beth caught the sound of distant voices, many feet and hooves padding across tiled floor, beeps and whirs, a nearby chair creaking as the weight shifted in it.

“Mayor Swinton wasted no time in laying the blame for the attack squarely upon the Zootopia Police Department, giving this short statement from the back of an ambulance before being taken to Zootopia Mercy Hospital for treatment of injuries sustained in the attack.”

_“I saw four officers down there with me when everything went down, and I’m being told there was another in the security control station. I need to seriously call into question the competency of the ZPD when something this horrible is allowed to happen when that kind of mammalpower is on the scene!”_

Beth’s ears caught a low-throated growl from the general direction of the squeaking chair. Her eyelids useless to protect her from the Hellish light streaming through whatever window had been left uncovered, she opened her eyes and looked around. She lay in a hospital bed, the blasphemous window to her right and a closed door to her left. Next to the window sat Chief Bogo, arms crossed as he watched the news on a wall-mounted TV opposite him.

“However,” continued Peter Moosebridge from the TV, “many other mammals recovering from the events in the Ocean Bay Complex have expressed goodwill and thankfulness toward the ZPD for their quick resolution to the situation, in particular one Officer Bethany Blaine, the first hare on the force.”

A photo of Beth in full police uniform replaced the news anchor on the TV, beaming as she saluted the camera. Beth felt her eyes grow wet as the report cut to a dolphin poking his head out of the water to speak into a microphone. “I saw it all as I was helping carry out non-sea mammals to the surface. She kept waving away our help toward others until the last minute, staying instead to close down the Grand Moon Pool doors so that the rest of the place wouldn’t flood. It was amazing!”

The report cut back to the studio. “Officer Blaine is currently recovering in Zootopia Mercy Hospital,” spoke the snow leopard. “We at ZNN wish her a speedy recovery. In less happy news, the search has entered hour three and Police Sergeant Judy Wilde-Hopps has yet to be found—”

Beth almost didn’t realize the cry of distress came from her. The television shut off with the click of a remote and Chief Bogo stood, moving to her oversized bed in two long strides. “Blaine, you’re awake! Good. The doctor’s thought you wouldn’t—”

“Chief, please.” Beth sat up and scrubbed away at her eyes, refusing to let tears fall when she had, apparently, gotten off so much better than so many others. She was alive, at least, which was more than she had been expecting, if her most recent memories could be trusted. “Sir, what happened to Ju… to Officer Wilde-Hopps?”

After a moment of exchanging heated glares, Bogo’s shoulders sagged and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I had been hoping you could tell me. She’s not among those rescued from the Complex, and her… body, hasn’t washed up on a pier, or anywhere else. Dive teams are combing the waters, but… the currents can get strong, down there, and the great lakes surrounding much of Zootopia are large… so large.”

“You mean…” Beth struggled for the words, hardly able to grasp the concept of Judy, THE Judy Hopps, now Wilde-Hopps, meeting so ignoble an end as drowning.

Examining Bogo’s tired, greying features, he seemed to have as much trouble with it. “Where did you last see her, Blaine? Officers Fangmeyer and Fangmeyer have given me their reports, but I need yours too before I can… start any paperwork.”

Absently, almost as if she was watching her body do it without her, Beth nodded, swallowed the lump in her throat, looked down to her hands clenched in her lap, nails digging into her palms. “She was engaged with the rabbit terrorist Honey told us about, Jack Savage. There were shots fired, she was fighting…” She frowned, shook her head. “No, she was winning. Had him cuffed and pinned against a tree. Then the flooding started and I… I lost sight of…”

She looked back up at Bogo, meeting the cape buffalo’s eyes. “I had to focus on saving civilians, sir. I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, Blaine. You did your duty—”

The door flew open hard enough for the handle to leave a dent in the wall, Beth jumping at the sudden bang enough to nearly fall out of bed. A scowling Mayor Swinton in a neck brace hobbled into the room on crutches, her left leg in a cast. She was trailed by a doe nurse pleading in vain for her to return to her room, and then a thoroughly embarrassed-looking Officer Grizzoli.

“Well,” snapped the pig, scowl fluctuating into and out of a smile as she stopped halfway to Beth’s bed and looked between her and Bogo. “There’s the hero of the hour! All comfy and restful while the rest of us have to actually DEAL with the problem we’re all in!”

Bogo snorted and stood to his full height, subtly placing himself between Swinton and Beth. “Stop right there. Mayor or not, I won’t have you harassing my officers.”

“Well that’s dandy,” said Swinton, Beth shuddering at the smile on the pig’s muzzle. “Because I’m here to harass YOU, and she’s just lucky enough to be present! You stupid, ineffectual old cow! As if a blown-up city block wasn’t enough, now we’ve gotta have an entire sub-district nearly destroyed, and the rabbit responsible for it no closer to being found than my ex-husband!”

“Mayor Swinton, my officers gained control of the situation—”

“By the skin of their teeth!” Beth gasped, actually gasped, as the pig poked a hoof into Bogo’s gut. “People still died! Tens of thousands of property damage was accrued! The perpetrators still got away! And to top it all off, the corrupt disgrace of a rabbit you called back in to ‘solve everything’ is probably feeding the fishes right now! So you tell ME HOW IN CONTROL OF THE SITUATION YOU FEEL!”

Silence after that outburst, or relative silence at least, filled by Swinton’s gasping for air and the regular, monotonous sounds of the hospital. Beth noticed the nurse had left at some point, tail probably tucked between her legs, while Grizzoli looked like he wished he had done the same. Bogo only stood there, stone-faced and quiet. Beth, finding it difficult not to leap out of bed at the pig, wished she had that level of calm in her.

Finally, Swinton managed a steady breath and swept her bangs out of her eyes. “48 hours, Bogo. For old time’s sake. That’s two days to put a stop to this madness. Jack Savage not in jail or in a body bag, I’ll bring in H.A.W.C. and the ZPD are out of business.”

At this Bogo’s brow furrowed, the only change in his demeanor Beth could see. “HiteTech’s private police organization?”

Swinton shrugged. “Miss Winona Hite’s been looking to expand their operations for months, and they’ve had nothing but success in San Dingo. I may only be mayor for a few more months, but I’ll make whatever decisions I have to in order to protect this city.”

She looked over at Beth then, the hare feeling like she was being x-rayed, before huffing and turning for the door. “Show me if you’re really willing to do the same.”

And then she was gone, dragging Grizzoli along with her and leaving the two cops alone in silence. Beth looked at Bogo, winced as he seemed to once more deflate before her, and rapidly tried to think of a positive in the situation. “At least… we… have plenty of camera footage of Jack Savage and this ‘Miss Black’ character to identify them better!”

This seemed to get the cape buffalo out of his funk, or at least roused him enough to make him put up a front for her sake. He cleared his throat, nodding as he started for the door. “Right. Officers Wolford and Wilde-Hopps are working on that now. I should…”

He paused at the door, clutching the frame as he looked back at her with a look Beth had never seen from him before. “I’ll send Honey in, now that you’re awake. Get better, Blaine. You’re back in the field tomorrow.”

***

“Oh, well that was a wee bit easier than I expected. Seems our lass Black’s got a bit of a name for herself in the international community, eh, Wilde? Wilde? Nick?”

Nick had heard Wolford plain and clear, being only at the other end of the table, and with no other mammals working in the ZPD computer labs to make noise or distract them. He kept his focus down, on the tool kit spread out before him, on the prosthetic arm propped against the table and palm up for him to work on getting it responsive again after Miss Black’s stun gun shorted it out.

“Nick, if—”

“I’m listening,” said Nick, using a pin to prod at a series of pressure-sensitive plates halfway up the opened forearm, mask of cool hustler indifference firmly in place. “Almost done with this. Just read off what you got.”

Out the corner of his vision Nick saw the grey-toned timber wolf frown, before rolling his chair back to the computer screen glowing with text and a large photo of the white wolf in question. “Right, sure. Anyway… Miss Black seems to be a relatively new alias for her. ZIA records list her as Copperhead, real name Morana Kasun, 32 years old, hails from Cowatia. High profile assassin, war criminal, terrorist, and… huh. That’s weird.”

Keeping the majority of his attention on the wire he was trying to reconnect with a pair of tweezers, Nick nevertheless couldn’t help but glance over for a moment at the tone in Wolford’s voice. “What is it?”

Wolford shrugged, brow creasing as he scrolled through fields of text. “ZIA has her listed as deceased. Killed during a cooperative strike by special agents and a H.A.W.C team over in San Dingo, three years ago. Says they had to collapse the building she was holed up in on top of her to take her out.”

Nick raised an eyebrow at this. Finally getting the wire attached, he flexed his fingers to his satisfaction and set the tweezers aside, starting to work on putting the prosthetic plating back into place, affixing it there with the tiniest of screws. “Might want to get on the phone, let them know their building didn’t do the job.”

“You know,” said Wolford, wheeling his chair around to face Nick, “all those years working here, I never took ya for much of a technician. Cool of ya to be able to do all that by yourself, lad.”

Nick gave a wistful smile as he flexed the mechanical hand, natural hand tracing over where metal met fur and flesh just an inch or so above the elbow. “Yeah… all those years working here and all the years before, I would’ve agreed with you. But the uh, the week after I got this, practically free thanks to the Hopps health insurance and HiteTech’s farmer’s policy, good ol’ Carrots sat me down with a tool kit and the schematics and insisted I be able to take care of the thing in my sleep, just like any good Hopps boy or girl. Apparently, farm injuries can get pretty nasty when you're a fragile little bunny.”

Turning from his arm, Nick ignored the wolf’s pitying look as he put his tools back in their kit and zipped it up. “I ah, I never quite got that good with the damned thing, but regular maintenance isn’t… isn’t too…”

A splash of water on the desk before him surprised Nick. He sniffed, wiping at his eyes with his good arm as he stood up from his chair. “Anyway, like I said, tell ZIA that Kasun’s still kicking it with a new name, and ask about Jack Savage while you’re at it. I’ve got a friend to check up on and a very important lead to foll—”

A firm grip on his arm kept him from walking away. Nick looked back at Wolford, the senior cop’s gaze frustratingly pitying and understanding. “Listen lad, we can’t say we’re going through exactly what you’re going through, but all of us at the ZPD were friends with Judy. She was a great cop and a great person. You know that if I or Clawhauser or Francine could take the lass’s place—”

“You’d be no worse off than you are now,” said Nick, yanking his arm free. He gave his best smile before turning for the elevator out. “Judy’s not dead,” he said over his shoulder, having a good idea the face Wolford would be making at about that moment. “Judy’s not the kind of rabbit who’d drown. Until she shows up again, call whatever she’s doing recon.”

***

“Jack Savage is a certified maniac.”

A chorus of mumbled agreements and nodding heads passed around the industrial kitchen table, not one voice dissenting. Koslov looked around at his fellow crime lords, seeing the same nervousness in their eyes that he knew must be in his after that morning’s events. He had been well aware of how well the rabbit could live up to his name, but he had never imagined…

“Jack Savage,” he continued. “Is an egomaniacal, sociopathic, murderous primadonna with all the resources to make his darkest fantasies reality.”

“You know,” said Sarabi, the lioness dusting lint off her business suit, “you could have told all of us this BEFORE we made our, apparently literal, deal with the Devil.”

“She speaks truly,” said Takei. The tanuki sat at the far end of the table from Koslov, running a whetstone over his cane sword. “I signed up for money, power, and crime. Not full-blown, wanton terrorism.”

“It’s bad for business,” grumbled Balor, the boar filing his tusks to their usual sharp point. “The Aquarium was a major road for my drug trade. I’m looking at months of lost revenue as it is. If the ZPD had failed and the whole place got flooded…”

Anjali said nothing, for the pangolin had been sitting there in her seat, rolled up in a ball since the meeting started. The first to arrive, as always. Koslov dismissed her silence with a snort and turned to the others. “All of this, I am aware of. Savage has always had a flair for the dramatic. I had hoped his associate, Miss Black, would keep him at least somewhat in line, though. I was wrong.”

“People in our line of work rarely get another chance after being wrong.” Sarabi gave a toothy smirk, tapping her claws against the table for emphasis. “Mr. Big proves that. Still, Savage is the point of this meeting. What is to be done with him? It is too late to back out of our arrangement with him, for sure, but surely there must be some way to… bring him to heel?”

"Was that a canine joke?"

They all jumped at the voice, turning as one to the doorway. There, to Koslov’s unease, stood Miss Black, her business suit traded for a black turtleneck and cargo pants, one hand holding the handle of a suitcase, the other resting on a revolver holstered at her belt.

“Miss Black. We… did not expect you to be here. Where is Savage?”

“Working on Plan B.” The wolf strode over to the table, slamming the suitcase down between Koslov and Balor. The entire table shook from the weight. “Didn’t care to tell me what that is. Sent me to assuage your worries instead.”

“Oh? Takei leaned forward, steepling his fingers. “And how might that be done?”

Saying nothing, Miss Black scrolled through the suitcase’s tumblers, unlocked it, and spun it around for the others to look inside as she lifted the lid. Koslov’s jaw dropped. Balor moaned. Takei jumped from his seat. Sarabi gasped. Anjali finally unrolled from her ball, eyes lighting up at the bars of gleaming gold filling the suitcase. It was she who found her voice first. “That must be tens of millions in Zootopian dollars in there!”

“Solid Mosbull gold,” said Miss Black, letting go of the suitcase and stepping back. “Courtesy of Miss White and Jack Savage. Does this assuage your… doubts, ladies and gentlemen?”

Koslov reached out to grab a gold bar, hefting it to test the weight, putting it side by side with the weight of his abandoned ties of friendship with the Big family and Zootopia in general.

“Oh yeah,” said Balor, taking a bar for himself. “This does the job nicely.”

***

“This is the second time you’ve almost died in this job in almost as many days, Beth. It’s… it’s scaring me, honestly.”

The pair lay curled up over the covers of Beth’s hospital bed, no thoughts of doing anything more risqué than light kissing crossing their minds as they simply found comfort in each other’s warmth, softness, presence. It was a hospital, after all.

“I know,” said Beth after taking a moment to chew over Honey’s words. “I’m just as scared as you, Honey.” She remembered. She remembered the one bulletproof vest, riddled with shrapnel and abandoned to the back of some cupboard or closet in their home, to never be seen again. She remembered another bulletproof vest, weighing her thrashing form down and abandoned to the depths of Zootopia Bay. It, too, hopefully never to be seen again. “Just as scared.”

The honey badger’s arms tightened around Beth, as if sensing where her thoughts were going. “And yet… I also felt so incredible in that security room after draining the water out. I’d done… SOMETHING, to help people, and set things right a little, you know? Like a big middle finger to Savage and Black!”

Beth laughed, half in amusement and half in relief, her thoughts heading toward that moment she’d seen her praise and recognition on the news. “Yeah, I know. And we’re going to keep giving those bastards the middle finger until they take the hint and bugger off!”

That got the honey badger cackling, Beth joining her a moment later. They laughed, laughed until their guts ached and their throats grew sore and tears streamed down their cheeks and Beth couldn’t tell anymore if she were happy or sad, laughing or sobbing. All she knew was that it felt GOOD to be letting it all out like this.

Eventually they wound down, Beth once more settling into her lover’s lap with a sigh, and that’s when she finally noticed their audience. There in the doorway stood Nick Wilde, one eyebrow raised, one hand holding a duffle bag, the other holding—

“Nicky,” growled Honey, setting the back of Beth’s neck tingling, “if you do what you’re about to do, I will hack your bank accounts and—”

CLICK.

“—empty them into the charity of Beth’s choice until you delete that photo.”

“Not a chance,” said Nick, slipping his phone back into his pocket and skipping to the bedside with a smile even Beth could tell was utterly fake. “Only a total square keeps money in bank accounts nowadays. Besides, you two looked utterly adorable together. Judy’s going to flip when she gets back and sees proof positive that you are a softy, Frosty.”

Beth grimaced, sharing a look with Honey before climbing out of her lap and sitting on the edge of the bed. “Detective Wilde-Hopps… Nick, I know I’d be in complete denial if anything bad happened to Honey, but… it’s been hours and she hasn’t been found. The chances of her surviving down there are…”

“I know,” said Nick, smile dropping as he set the duffle bag down in a chair. “It’s impossible, AND it’s impossible for her to have died like that, so the only option is that Savage and his wolf friend took her with them when they escaped. And you,” he said as he pointed to Honey, “are going to help me find them.”

“Me? What can I do?”

“Computers,” he said. “Most of the rest of the ZPD are busy handling the Complex emergency, reaching out to other law enforcement agencies for info, or doubling up security around Swinton and Gazelle, and I am not the most computer-literate fox in the world. Plus, these guys are gonna figure out you’re involved sooner or later, and there’s safety in numbers. PLUS… I don’t work well without a partner. I start talking to myself, and one-sided snark is NOT a pretty sight.”

“Hey, hold on a minute!” Beth stood up her bed to glare down at Nick, swaying for only a moment before Honey reached out to steady her. “You are not going to drag my girlfriend into any more of this… this madness! She’s done enough for the cause!”

“Uh, actually, I’d be more than happy to—”

“Hush, you!” Beth glared over her shoulder at the honey badger for a moment, before turning to look back at Nick. “It is dangerous, and irresponsible, and reckless, and I refuse to just sit back here and watch you two prance off into dangers unknown on your own!”

“Sounds fair enough.” Nick picked the duffle bag back up, opened it, and pulled out a ZPD bodysuit and accompanying body armor, so like the one she usually wore but dark blue with white highlights. “So come with.”

She gaped, first at the fox in front of her, then at the bodysuit, then at Honey grinning like a loon next to her. She snapped her mouth shut and looked down at the irritating hospital gown, her decision practically made for her.

After all, the bad guys were still out there somewhere, Judy Wilde-Hopps was still out there somewhere, and Beth had only PARTLY drowned.


	10. Chapter 10

_"Judy... help me..."_

_"Nick!" She hopped toward him; or at least, tried to, before sudden bone-breaking pain erupted through her legs, sending her screaming and reeling in place. She looked down and saw more foxes chomping down on her legs to hold her in place, Arctic eyes glaring at her._

_She looked back up and saw Nick again, free of the branches but sans right arm now, eyes turned an Arctic blue. As she watched, his fur and skin split, Night Howler flowers sprouting free as if from plain soil. And as this happened he smiled, a smile no loved one could give. "Your legacy, Carrots."_

Judy jerked awake, her cry for Nick muffled by a thick strip of duct tape. Confusion piercing through the terror from her nightmare like a needle through a balloon, she tried reaching up to rip the tape off, only to find her arms and legs connected to a chair by handcuffs, barely visible in the dim light of sterile tile room around her.

“Whmph? Mmph!—”

Her last memories before unconsciousness hit her like a brick. The Complex, Swinton’s rally, trying to arrest Jack Savage, the sudden flooding, capped off by a flare of pain to the back of the head, and then darkness. Like a cliffhanger in some bad movie. Nothing to tell her the state of Nick, Blaine, Honey, or anyone else.

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Judy looked around herself with more care. She’d been stripped of her uniform, left only in her pants and black undershirt. She saw around her tiled walls and marble floors in utilitarian shades of green, a cot shoved up into a corner, a sink and toilet next to it, one wall completely glass—

Judy snapped her full attention to this glass wall and sliding door, the spark of recognition sending her ears straight up. “The hospital Lionheart kept the savage animals!” Well, that’s what she tried saying, at least, though the duct tape hampered it somewhat.

“Ah, you remember this place. I was worried you wouldn’t.”

Judy’s fur bristled, fear lancing through her at the voice drifting over from the half of the observation room she couldn’t crane her head back far enough to see. Before she could try Jack Savage stepped around to her front, suit crisp and clean, a smile on his lips. To her disappointment he looked none the worse for wear from their earlier fight save for a bandage across the bridge of his nose and a single black eye.

Unable to properly vocalize her loathing of the rabbit in front of her, Judy expressed it non-verbally. Both hands. Full mast. He laughed at this, reaching out to rip the duct tape (and more than a few hairs) from her face before dancing back. “There. Isn’t that better, Judy?”

“YOU SON OF A—”

SMACK.

Head thrown back by the force of the slap, Judy stared at the hideous wall tiles for a second before looking back at Savage. He looked as embarrassed by the blow as she felt for not having seen it coming, rubbing his hand with the other and trying to work up a smile. “I’m sorry, I… didn’t mean to do that. Just the excitement of the moment, you know?”

Judy stared, truly at a loss for words in the presence of this bipolar madman. A second passed and he cleared his throat, blue eyes almost glowing in the dimly lit room as he got his smile to stick. Striding back to the part of the room Judy couldn’t see, he came back after a moment pushing a rolling table. Her eyes widened at the sheer number and variety of bladed instruments at rest upon it.

“I don’t like hitting people I’m leaving alive,” he continued, picking up a worryingly serrated scalpel and turning back to her. “Blows like that don’t really last long upon the person. Guns are better, especially when they manage to take off a chunk of something. Like your ear, for instance.” He started walking toward her, smile not reaching his eyes as she leaned back, away. “Claws are best, if you’re a predator, but being a rabbit I have to settle for—”

A sudden swipe, untelegraphed, and Judy jerked as pain blossomed across the back of her forearm. It took all her effort not to give him the satisfaction of a scream.

“—knives. That’s a nasty cut there. It will probably scar almost as bad as your face. So much easier to hide, though.”

“I don’t know what you’re planning,” said Judy, fighting through the pain, “but you’ll never get away with it. Nick and the others will find me, and we will take you down. You might as well give up now.”

To her annoyance, Savage chuckled and shook his head. “Hope, born by the false security of numbers on your side. Allies. Friends, even family. I remember having that hope, once upon a time.”

Judy watched, wary as he set the scalpel back down on its tray. Picking up next a shaving razor, he tested its weight in his palm for a moment before turning and beginning to circle around her. “I was a child the last time I felt the hope of comradery. 10, I think, maybe 11, when I and 49 of my siblings, ranging from two years younger than me to a year older, were kidnapped en masse and thrown, naked and afraid, onto… well, the where doesn’t matter. Just some island or other, full of dangers. A group of terribly rich mammals, you see, had gotten it into their heads to do a little hunting every few years. Harken back to older, purer days. And not just predators either, no, I remember prey mammals among them too. A rhino. Two deer. A hippo. Real wendigos, those people.”

A slash to Judy’s left shoulder made her flinch. Savage gave an apologetic smile as he passed in front of her. “I remember their proclamation on that sharp-rocked beach, my siblings and I all huddled together like the terrified bunny kits we were. ‘Seven days on the island! Four to prepare, three to survive! Any bunnies left by sundown that final day get to go home!’ Home! Can you believe the kind of HOPE that promise inspired, Judy? Home, if only all my siblings and I could work together and survive!”

Another slash, this time to the back of Judy’s neck, just enough to draw blood. She whimpered and squirmed in her seat, looking with unwanted pity at the other rabbit as he circled around. “Jack, you—”

“Snakes,” he said over her, razor dancing between his fingers. “Venomous snakes. Venomous spiders. Venomous freaking ants! Tics that caused paralysis! Crocodiles big enough to eat two or three of us in one bite! Beautiful flowers that drove those of us who ate them mad with savagery! A third of us died before the hunting even began! WE WERE ONLY KITS!”

The razor clattered to the floor at Judy’s feet, nicking a toe. She ignored that slight pain, staring instead in horror at Jack as he grabbed up an x-acto knife. He rolled it in his palm as he resumed circling her. “Every day I watched more and more of my brothers and sisters die, our crude spears smacked away, our pathetic traps laughed at, our attempted hideaways sniffed out by damn grizzlies. And every night we lay huddled in the tallest trees we could find, watching the bonfires in the forest clearings as our tormentors… enjoyed, the spoils of the hunt. Until one night, the last night, no other bunnies joined me in those branches. I heard no other soft sobbing, no whimpers for our parents to save us, just… me, and the stench of roasting meat.”

Judy wanted to throw up. Might have, if she’d had any food in her stomach. She barely shuddered as the other rabbit stopped in front of her and dragged the knife down her belly, again just enough to draw blood. “Jack, how… how did you…”

“Survive?” His smile held no mirth, only rage. He stood before her with eyes alight, like a demon possessed. “With the great equalizer. Fire. I stole into their camp as they slept and I stole their fire. With it I set the entire island ablaze. I burned every inch of it to ash. The hunters. The animals. The bones of my family. None survived but a tiger, an antelope, and a clouded leopard with half his face eaten off. And when I finally stood alone and saved atop the ash and cinders, awash in the smoke of the burning Night Howlers, I realized the truth of this world. The same truth you know, Judy, even if you’re in denial.”

Broken from the spell of his narration, Judy swallowed and shook her head, disgusted with the thought of having anything in common beyond species with the pitiable monster in front of her. “No, I don’t know what you—”

“It’s a lie.” Jack Savage set the knife back on the tray, tracing a stubby claw over a bone saw before shaking his head and turning for the door. “This world, Zootopia, everything, they’re built on the fundamental lie that predator and prey mean anything. But you see, Judy, the only real difference, the only thing that decides who is predator and who is prey… is who gets in the last BITE.”

Judy watched him hit the button to close the door, letting him engage the locks before speaking. “I wish I could help you. But I don’t think anyone can. So I’ll have to settle for stopping you.”

Jack stood there on the other side of the glass for a moment, gaze focused nowhere, a hand pressing to the glass. “If you can,” he said, “you’re more than welcome to. Miss Black and Miss White would certainly love to see that, especially if they had an inkling of Plan B. Until then, though…” He smiled, turning and walking down the corridor beyond with a song on his lips.

“Hey, hey, hey  
Since I'm gonna go to hell anyway  
I'll go out with a bang, bang, bang  
Crash and burn it all away.  
Hey, hey, hey  
Since I'm gonna go to hell anyway  
I'll go out with a bang, bang, bang  
Crash and burn it all away.”

***

“Okay officers, the wall is down and I am in. Now what?”

Nick rejoined Honey at his work computer from where he’d been sifting through the Bay Complex’s security camera recordings on his laptop. Beth joined them seconds later, her desk further away. “Hurray. Tell me again why you needed my girlfriend to remotely hack the city’s traffic camera network? We’re police, we could just ask Swinton for access in a snap.”

“True,” said Nick as he scanned the screen for the system he wanted. “But then Swinton would know what we’re doing, and let’s just say this city’s got a really bad track record when it comes to trustworthy mayors.”

To Honey he pointed to the screen and said “There, Savannah Central, the streets immediately surrounding Zootopia Central Station. Sometime before we got on the train.”

“On it,” said Honey, typing away and pulling up multiple windows showing different streets. “And we are looking for…?”

“Savage and Blacky,” said Nick. “Public displays of affection are one of the best methods to make people NOT want to look at you, every decent hustler and con-mammal knows that, and I’m ashamed to forget it. That wolf and rabbit pair on the train ride to the Complex with us? That was them!”

Beth loosed a swore that tinged Honey’s cheeks pink. “So you’re thinking we can follow them backwards through the traffic and security cameras to wherever they’re hiding?”

Nick shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. The two didn’t just teleport onto the train.”

“I think I got them,” said Honey, keeping Nick from saying more. They looked to the window the badger had enlarged, showing a tan jeep sitting out near the western entrance to the train station. She dragged the video backward, and as they watched a wolf and a rabbit, the same as they’d seen on the train and encountered underwater, walked backward out of the station, hopping into the jeep and starting it up. The vehicle pulled out, turned, moved in reverse onto the exit ramp for the cross-city highway.

“Don’t lose them,” said Beth, but Honey was already clicking to new windows and reversing the flow of the footage. They followed the vehicle back down (up?) the highway for several miles, before it backed onto an on-ramp, slowing into a residential neighborhood that opened into shops and parks.

“Still in Savannah Central,” said Beth, sounding almost disappointed. “Wait, are they…?”

Now Nick swore as on the camera recording the jeep reversed back into a parking spot next to Savannah Central Park. “That’s just down the freaking street! Clawhauser could have looked out the front doors and seen this happen! And why, oh why the park, these clever jerks!?”

At Honey’s questioning look Beth said “There are no traffic or security cameras in the park surrounding Little Rodentia. And to scan through every camera surrounding the park in the hope of catching them entering it would take hours…”

“Oh…” The honey badger wound back the recording they’d stopped on and, sure enough, wolf and rabbit fell out of the vehicle, handed the keys off to a miserable-looking polar bear, and backed away out of sight into the wooded park. That section of recorded footage ended just as the polar bear started getting into (out of?) the jeep. “Well, why don’t we follow him further on instead? I think I remember seeing him at the big crime boss meeting too, one of the bodyguards.

“Yeah, one of Koslov’s guys.” Nick scratched his chin, thinking. This turn of events didn’t make sense, said his old hustler instincts. Someone was being led on. “If they’ve got all the crime lords working together on this, why have Koslov provide the vehicle here? Why not Sarabi the lioness? She controls the crime in Savannah Central and Sahara Square… Honey, play the footage normally.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

She clicked play and they watched, Nick keeping his gaze glued to Jack Savage and Miss Black the moment they stepped out of the park, following them up to the polar bear, Savage waving a cheery greeting, taking the keys—

“Stop! Wind it back a few seconds and play again.”

Nick grinned at his hare compatriot having caught something too. They watched as Savage waved to the polar bear, took the keys from him… and then glance toward the traffic camera they watched from before getting into the jeep.

“They know we watched them,” said Beth after a deep breath, sounding half-amazed and half-dismayed. “How could they know that?”

“Paranoid delusions?” Honey offered. "Checking where all the cameras in an area are is a habit I picked up from my sheep conspiracy days.”

Nick blinked and looked at the badger. “Sheep… conspiracy? Actually no, never mind, not important right now. What is important is that THAT polar bear,” he said, pressing a claw to the computer screen, “is a hustle.” At the blank expressions this got him he clarified. “A trap. Something so out of place it catches our eye leads us to… who knows? I’d put good money on somewhere remote and abandoned, where nobody will ear our bodies getting riddled with bullets by the countless criminals lying in wait.”

“Wow,” said Honey. “That is remarkably pessimistic.”

Nick shrugged, his smile bitter. “What can I say? Judy usually carries enough optimism for the both of—”

He stopped, the computer grabbing his attention once more as, without any of their input, the screen changed to video of what seemed at first a normal living room, save for the immediately recognizable rabbit sitting at the center of the couch, smiling. “… the hell?”

***

Throughout Zootopia, from Tundratown to Little Rodentia, from the Oasis Hotel to the trains zipping through the Rainforest District, on every available screen there appeared the video feed of the black and grey rabbit sitting on the couch, idly twirling a toy train car in his hands. To the camera he smiled, his Arctic eyes glowing in the room’s dimmed lighting.

“Hello, citizens of Zootopia. My name is Jack Savage. Remember it. You may know me from my latest hit singles, “Bombing in Sahara Square” and “Oh God, There’s Water Everywhere, Glub Glub”. And I’m sure you’ve all been wondering why this terror, this… evil, has chosen to befall you. You’re a nice city after all, a nice people. You’ve had your stumbles along the way, but you’re getting better, right?”

He set the toy train on the coffee table in front of him next to a toy truck and a toy boat and continued. “Well the answer is quite simple, really. I want to be… remembered. Forever. Forget Judy Hopps and her stumbling mediocrity, JACK SAVAGE is the rabbit to remember, you stupid, simpering, pathetic whelps!”

Screams would be heard throughout Zootopia as Jack pulled a handgun out from under the table and methodically shot each of the toys, the train last.

As the smoke cleared he set the gun beside him on the couch and smiled once more to the camera and those watching. “I command Zootopia’s criminals. All of them. Tomorrow evening, at mayoral candidate Gazelle’s charity event for the victims of the bombing and, I assume, soon the Complex flooding as well, we will KILL Gazelle. And there is nothing the ZPD will be able to do to stop us. They are powerless. And the longer they refuse to accept that, the more people will die. Bye bye!”

Then, as quickly as it had come, across Zootopia the video feed cut off.

***

For a long moment the three stood there, stunned silent.

“Nick, you think… this might be another hustle?”

Nick blinked and looked at Beth beside him, shaking his head before looking back at the screen. “I don’t think so. It fits his pattern so far. Grandiose, attention-grabbing, plus he’s already made an attempt on one candidate’s life…” The only anomaly that Nick could find was the announcement of what Jack Savage was intending to do. That was a new one.

The sound of thundering footsteps and staggering footsteps behind them broke Nick from his train of thought. He turned and saw Wolford rushing up the aisle of offices, panting like he’d run straight from the computer labs. “Oh Wolfy, baby, please tell me you were able to track that. Pretty please.”

“Not… for one… second,” the wolf managed as he came to rest against the office wall to steady himself. “Whatever equipment these bassas be using to hide themselves, it’s gotta be military grade stuff.”

Nick grit his teeth, claws digging into the back of Honey’s chair as he tried hard, very hard, to not scream. He knew at least that Judy wouldn’t want him screaming. “Then why did you come running like that?”

Wolford pried himself off the wall. “A lot of things. Bad things. The ZIA got back saying, in no uncertain terms, that our Miss Black absolutely HAS to be dead, and that we’re pulling their leg with Jack Savage, that he’s just a ghost story they tell new agents to scare them. Bunch of dobbers, if you ask me.”

“But they’ve got to take this seriously!” Beth’s voice was shrill, panicked, grating to Nick’s ears. “Send them the security feeds, send them what we just saw, send them… whatever it takes!”

“I’ll do it myself,” said Honey, already turned back to the computer, hands a blur. “That, and that, and the traffic cam stuff for good measure—”

The radios of every cop there crackled to life, Clawhauser’s voice coming over on the verge of panic. “This is a mass emergency! Precinct 2 is reporting heavy gunfire on their building and are requesting assistance from all available units! I can’t raise anyone over at Precinct 4! Mayor Swinton's on the phone, demanding answers for that broadcast! Reports of robberies, muggings, and vandalism are flooding in front all Districts! Bogo’s calling in all officers for—”

Nick crushed his radio with his prosthetic hand, throwing the remnants to the floor and backing away from it, from Honey and Beth and Wolford staring at him in sudden worry. He worked to stop panting, to get his shaking hand under control, to disperse the ringing in his ears, failing spectacularly at each effort. He'd tried keeping in control, tried to follow his old maxim of not letting mammals see they got to him, but this final flood of emergencies. “It’s too—I can’t—what—just, just wait…”

“Nick…” Beth stepped forward, the hare reaching for him, palm out. “Calm down—”

“To hell with calm,” he said, turning around when he bumped against a chair and nearly fell. He propped himself against the chair, suddenly feeling like he was going to throw up. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this! It would be just another case! The bad guy’d do bad stuff, we’d follow the trail, catch him, and everything would be okay in the end! Judy’d be back to normal, stopping crime and solving mysteries! She, she’d already be out the door right now, ears perked, everything falling into place as she figured out what needed doing! She, we, I thought, I can’t… without her—”

BZZZZZZ—BZZZZZZ-BZZZZZZ—

Everyone there jumped at the sound of Nick’s phone ringing, Nick most of all. Realizing the depth of the breakdown he’d just had, his ears felt ready to burst into flame as he struggled to pull out his phone from his pants pocket and answer it. “H-hello?”

“Nicky? Is this a bad time? You sound shaken.”

At first Nick couldn’t put name and face to voice, but then he could. “Fru Fru? Oh God, Fru Fru, I’m so sorry for your father… for everything…”

“Thank you, Nicky, but that’s only partly why I’m calling. I saw the video just a moment ago. Now I’m doing this for our Judies. My daughter and your wife.”

Nick blinked, feeling like, with everything happening all at once, he was missing some key puzzle piece. From the side Wolford mouthed a question. Nick shook his head negative and focused on the phone, setting it to speakerphone so the others could listen in. “Doing… Fru Fru, doing what?”

“That Savage trash has all the crime lords and their people working for him, tearing up the city for him. All thanks to Koslov.” The amount of raw hatred put into that single name made Nick’s hackles rise. “The Big family’s people aren’t joining in, but I’m not a boss like my daddy. I can’t lead them against this like he would. But I can still make that polar bear pay for turning his back on my family and hurting our Judies.”

Nick swallowed, a feeling of hope rising in him despite his best efforts for pessimism. Koslov had once been part of the Big crime family, and if Koslov knew how to find Jack Savage… “How, Fru Fru?”

“The Big Family is going straight,” the Arctic shrew on the other end of the line said, Beth and Wolford gasping and Honey fist pumping. “And I’m bringing everyone we’ve ever done business with down with me.”


	11. Chapter 11

“—and in response to the threat against her life by international terrorist Jack Savage, mayoral candidate and former popstar Gazelle had much to say.”

“He is a coward. All his kind are. I can’t imagine what traumas in his life made him this way, for there is always a trauma, but they do nothing to excuse the PAIN and fear he has inflicted on our beautiful city. The people of Zootopia will rebuild from this. We will recover and move on with our lives as long as we have each other to rely upon. THAT is the strength that will see us through these evil times.

“And to any who may now be reconsidering my charity event tonight, I will not let this rabbit make me cower away in fear, but I will ask nothing of anybody. My campaign offices remain open, so if you prefer, merely call there and I will match whatever amount you hoped to give in the name of those hurt by Savage’s crimes.”

“Meanwhile, as quickly as it began, the sudden crime wave throughout Zootopia has faltered, stricken by a series of precise SWAT raids against the leaders of the District-wide gangs.”

***

“So, uh… you ever wonder why we’re here?”

The leopard guard regarded his dhole companion with only vaguely-concealed annoyance as they rounded the corner to Cliffside Asylum’s high-security wing. “We’re here because Mrs. Anjali is paying us lots and lots of good money to play nice with Miss Black’s goons, dummy.”

“Oh, right, money. That’s always a good reason to be somewhere.”

The pair stopped in front of the high-security wing’s main door. Taking out a keycard, the dhole unlocked the slab of steel and hauled it open for his taller companion. “But uh, I mean, are we still supposed to be doing this? You heard the radio, the other big bosses are on the run and Mrs. Anjali is probably next.”

“Assuming she didn’t rat everyone else out to save her own cowardly—” The leopard cut off as something strange in one of the right-hand cells caught his eye, hard to see as it was in the perpetually-gloomy abandoned hospital. “Gotta get better lighting around this blasted—”

His flashlight beam illuminated a lonesome chair, broken handcuffs and a worn-down bonesaw on the floor around it. “Oh Hell!”

The dhole’s flashlight beam joined his, sweeping around the cell a scant second before falling on a limp rabbit body hanging halfway out of the toilet, legs swaying as if movement had only just ceased. “Double-Hell!”

They tripped over themselves in their rush to unlock and open the cell’s glass door, Jack Savage’s warning to KEEP HOPPS ALIVE blaring in their heads like a tornado siren. The leopard knelt beside the toilet, wondering if the rabbit had tried flushing herself out through the oversized plumping as he reached out for her—

WHAP-CRUNCH.

Not sure how it happened, the leopard suddenly found himself on his back, something warm and wet running down his cheeks it took him a surprising amount of time to recognize as blood from a broken nose. He watched, dazed, as a grey blur bounced around the cell, punching and kicking the dhole from every angle before finally rebounding off the ceiling to deliver a dropkick to the top of the canine’s head that dropped him for good. His ears barely registered the low thud that rang out before he saw those feet shooting his way—

THUMP.

***

Judy rifled through the pockets of the two guards, ears perked for the sound of any more coming her way as she confiscated two keycards, a flashlight that in her hands felt more like a deadly club, a pocket knife, and to her silent joy, a cell phone. Pressing the On button, she winced at the mere 5% battery left, but took it anyway, finishing with drying her face and head off with the dhole’s shirt.

Leaving the two guards locked away in the cell, Judy hopped out the way they’d come into the high-security wing and down the corridor beyond, trying to remember the layout of the building from the one time she had been there, years ago when she and the ZPD had arrested Mayor Lionheart for locking up the savage predators. If she remembered right the corridor she was in would to some offices, and then split off to stairs that would—

“Continue your patrols. Leave what’s happening in Zootopia to me.”

The unfamiliar voice sent Judy stumbling to a stop inches from turning a corner, eyes locked on the wolf-sized shadow nearing from the intersecting corridor. She scrambled backward for a broom closet she’d passed moments before, closing the door behind her just as she heard footsteps round the corner beyond.

“I’ll leave in five. The criminals are growing nervous about these setbacks. No, I suppose the fewer the better for us. Better bargaining position. Does Miss White know what Plan B is? I never…”

Judy gripped the flashlight and held her breath as the accented voice passed the closet by, not allowing herself to breathe until it had faded completely even from her rabbit hearing. Retreating to the farthest corner of the supply closet from the door, she crouched behind a mop bucket and, with some difficulty, dialed Nick’s phone number from memory. The phone on the other end rang once… twice… three times…

“Come on, come onnn, pick up…”

At the fifth ring the other phone answered and Judy immediately started talking, worried at the cell phone’s low battery. “Nick, I hope to God you’re okay. I’m at Cliffside Asylum, where we found all the savage mammals! Jack Savage is using it as a base of operations! Get everyone you can over here immediately!”

Silence for a moment, and then, “Judy? It’s mighty fine ta hear your voice after everything we heard happened over in Zootopia, but what in blazes are ya rambling on about?”

Judy bit her hand to keep from screaming at herself, and at Nick and his stupid phone number pranks. “Gideon! Call Nick or the ZPD or someone and tell them everything I just said! It’s a matter of life and death!”

“Judy, calm down, I—”

Gideon went quiet. Judy waited a moment in case something had simply happened on his end, before looking at the stolen phone and swearing at the blank screen. She pressed the power button just to be safe, then swore again. “What kind of self-respecting mammal lets their battery get that low?”

Setting the phone down, she crept back to the door and listened for a minute, straining to catch the slightest sound of movement beyond it. When she heard nothing she opened the door, peaked left and right, and started again the way she was going. She’d wasted enough time around there, and the longer she stayed, the more likely someone would find her gone.

A lone tiger lounged in the offices, chuckling as she watched a Ewetube video on her phone. Judy kept low to the floor as she crept around the far edge of the area, pausing to check he wasn’t looking her way. Once she was certain the coast was clear she opened the door enough to squeeze through and rushed down the stairwell two steps at a time.

Two levels down Judy came to the ground floor, just as the door to her right swung open. She ducked behind it as a pair of boars in what looked like repurposed riot gear trudged past to the basement stairs, then hurried through the door as it swung shut.

Judy found herself in a long hallway lined with doors, wood against tile. At the far end she saw a pair of double-doors that, if her memory served, led into the asylum’s front lobby, and then from there it’d be a straight run across a bridge to freedom and relative safety. Assuming there wasn’t a marksmammal or anything watching the bridge.

“Come on, Judy, cynicism’s not getting you anywhere… wait.”

She slid to a stop halfway down the hallway, eyes caught by a familiar name upon a door.

JACK SAVAGE’S ROOM: NO ENTRY UNLESS MISS BLACK. (Okay Francis, you can come in too.)

“He… can’t be serious.”

The echo of distant voices from the stairwell reached Judy’s ears. In a split-second decision she tried the door, found it unlocked, and ducked in, closing the door behind her. She stood there for a moment with her uninjured ear pressed against it, listening until the sound of passing footsteps faded, before turning and taking stock of the room she found herself in. The faded green walls and flattop counters told her it had been an examination room for larger mammals once upon a time, though it had long since been converted into an office-type area, the examination table replaced by a low-slung table covered in papers, laptops, and what looked alarmingly like a stick of C4.

“Well, never one to risk missing evidence…”

Judy picked up the top paper and looked it over. “Dates and times… no context though. Are these for clandestine meetings?”

Another paper showed the schematics for what looked like HiteTech's most expensive, top-of-the-line prosthetics, the kind Nick could only dream of some day having. A third paper looked like a proposal for some sort of heart restarter, the name "Doctor Bambi Luedono" in the upper corner. A fourth paper read “Plan B” in massive letters, followed only by a childish drawing of an explosion.

"Man, Savage really has something against this company..."

A fifth paper seemed the most substantial, a list of cargo shipments done through Tundratown Truckers. Judy’s eyes widened as she read down the list, mind boggling at the sheer amount of explosives that had been smuggled into Zootopia over the course of months.

“Who’s supplying all this?”

One laptop was off, the other on and with three windows open. The first, a list of flights and arrival times from San Dingo. The second, Gazelle’s public rally itinerary. The third, to Judy’s mixed annoyance and confusion, Strangers on a Train paused halfway through.

Before she could contemplate any of this, a sound came from the hallway beyond. Judy scampered back to the door and pressed an ear up to listen, poking her head out when she heard nothing. She found the coast clear and, deciding she’d pushed her luck far enough, started again for the exit.

Outside the world was grey and stormy, much as she remembered it being all those years before, on her first investigation with Nick. Judy crept from one parked vehicle to the next toward the bridge, ears twisting every direction to catch a sound, heart thundering as she imagined guards appearing at any moment to halt her progress. None appeared.

Crouching down between a jeep and the guardrail encircling the area, Judy surveyed the bridge ahead of her with an ever-present sense of dread that she just couldn’t pin down. There should have been someone out there keeping watch. Even Lionheart had kept a good half-dozen timber wolves on outside guard duty alone, not counting those inside the old asylum. Yet aside from a vague figure inside the guard booth at the far end of the bridge, she didn’t see a single soul out there.

Judy looked behind her at the doors to the darkened building one last time, before setting off across the bridge at a sprint. If she could keep her ears down and circle around the guard booth fast enough, she could get past unsee—

A crack rang through the air, followed nearly instantly by the spot of bridge in front of Judy’s right foot exploding into a plume of dust. She skidded to a stop and staggered back, eyes wide and heart racing at the close brush with becoming an amputee.

From the guard booth stepped a white-coated timber wolf in a grey bodysuit and Kevlar armor, assault rifle still smoking as she slung it by a strap over her shoulders onto her back. “Officer Hopps. I can’t let you leave.”

Judy backed up a step, arms up and stance wide for a fight. “Miss Black, I presume. Too bad, because I think I’ve kept my loved ones worried for long enough. Not to mention the whole ‘city in danger’ thing.”  
At this Black scoffed, pulling a radio from her belt. “The city is always in danger, Officer Hopps. Every crime and criminal risks being the final straw to send it spiraling into anarchy. You are a good cop, but Zootopia needs more now.”

Then she flipped the radio on and brought it to her lips. “Savage, this is Black. I’m going to be late, get started without me. No, I won’t kill her when I can avoid it. Good luck to you t—”

Judy, seeing an opportunity, dove for the space between Black’s legs. Immediately the wolf dropped the radio, fell into a crouch, and swept her leg out in a kick that drove the air from Judy’s lungs and sent her flying to the bridge’s guardrails. Judy barely got her hands in front of her in time to grab the rail and turn her momentum into a swing, back toward the slowly advancing wolf. This time when Black threw a kick Judy grabbed the limb, spinning around it to deliver a double-footed kick to the back of her other leg.

“Aaugh!”

Black fell forward onto all fours. Judy let go and started running again for escape off the bridge, a growl from behind the only warning before she was grabbed by the ears and thrown back toward the asylum. She grunted as her shoulder slammed the concrete road, hard, but rolled with it into a crouched stance that left her facing her foe. The only outward signs that anything had happened were that both had started panting and, to Judy’s distress, she had actually been pushed back across the bridge by the encounter.

Seeming calm and collected as ever despite her harsher breathing, Black cracked her knuckles as she started striding toward Judy. “He truly is your biggest fan, you know. Thinks you’re amazing. I think you’re a disappointment.”

A barely-dodged downward punch cracked the concrete. Judy ran up the limb, delivering a trio of haymakers to the wolf’s face before jumping up and over her. Judy cried out as Black whipped her wolf tail up into her eyes, then followed with a kick that sent her tumbling head over head across the bridge.

“He embraced Zootopia’s nightmare. You RAN from it, cowering in the safety of home and family. That’s all you do when the world seems too much, Officer Hopps. You RUN.”

Judy struggled to her feet, barely managing to roll with a kick and deliver an elbow up into Black’s side. The wolf barely stumbled in her advance, body-checking Judy into the ground before grabbing her with one hand around her neck and lifting her up as if she weighed nothing. Perhaps she did, to her opponent.

“Pathetic.”

Now struggling to breathe on top of everything else, she kicked out with her legs as hard as she could, barely managing to graze Black’s chest. Her kicks grew more frantic, stubby claws scrabbling at Black’s hand and forearm as the wolf strode to the side of the bridge. Judy’s heart seized as Black held her out over the edge, the roaring waterfall below them churning with terrible, all-consuming indifference to the drama above.

Black squeezed until Judy shuddered, wolf and rabbit eyes locking together. For the first time since the fight began, Judy saw Black smile. “Savage will miss you. He’ll get over it. Goodbye, Officer—”

Without warning, a white and blue blur shot forth from the edges of Judy’s dimming vision. It crashed into Black’s elbow with what must have been the force of a gunshot and resolved into the form of Officer Bethany Blaine, the arm bending to a horrifically unnatural angle before her body slam.

Black howled in agony, fingers splaying open. Judy yelped, arms flailing for the bridge just out of reach as she fell—

“JUDY!”

—until Nick threw himself halfway through the bridge’s guardrails and grabbed her hand in his, nearly pulling her right arm from its socket but stopping her fall.

For a moment Judy could only hang there above the waterfall and look up, amethyst meeting green as she lost herself in her husband’s eyes and the endless love and worry she found there. Then, in a soft voice she almost didn’t recognize as her own, “Don’t let go.”

“I won’t,” Nick said, all smiles as he twisted around to plant both feet against the railing and pulled. “I love you”

Judy’s heart swelled. The moment she’d been pulled within reach she grabbed the railing and hauled herself over, not caring who else might be watching as she tackled her fox to the ground and pressed her lips to his. He moaned up at her, a shiver running through Judy as he wrapped his arms around her and pressed in with his tongue—

“NICK! JUDY! THIS IS LITERALLY THE WORST TIME AND PLACE FOR THAT!”

The kiss broke, Judy jumping to her feet to see Beth frantically ducking and dodging kicks from a growling, snapping Miss Black. Her right arm dangling useless at her side seemed to hardly slow the white wolf down.

“Wow,” said Nick as he stood up. “She seems mad.”

“Yeah,” said Judy, glancing to the ZPD cruisers gathering at the far end of the bridge before breaking into a run. “Let’s help with that.”

Black had just managed to send Beth staggering with a grazing blow when Judy leapt over the hare. Black blocked her drop kick with her good arm, leaving herself open to Nick planting his prosthetic fist firmly into her liver.

“Urk!”

The wolf staggered back, wheezing as she visibly struggled not to puke. Judy ran and jumped, kicking Black’s chest and sending her further back, up against the bridge’s rails. Seeming to panic now, she reached up for the assault rifle strapped to her back, Judy watching with an almost morbid fascination as Beth charged forward, twisted into a handstand, and kicked up into the wolf’s chin. There came a short grunt, seeming more surprised than pained, and then Miss Black toppled silently over the edge into the waterfall below.

For five seconds, maybe ten, Judy stood there with her guard up, unsure if it was really over. But then more ZPD officers came charging up the bridge toward the asylum to secure it and Judy felt as if strings holding her up had been cut. She stumbled, nearly falling before Nick caught her, sinking down with her into a sitting position with her in his lap. There they kissed again, quick little pecks as Nick ran his hands over her, whimpering at every cut and bruise on her body. Judy might have laughed at the concern, were she not so completely, totally exhausted.

“I’m okay, Nick. I’m okay.”

“I love you, oh God do I love you. Frosty, get on the radio and tell that ambulance to hurry! Cheese and crackers, Judy, I was so scared! I tried, I tried continuing the job, tried to believe you could handle yourself until we found you but I… I need you, Judy.”

Judy couldn’t find the words for how she felt in that moment, reunited with the most important person in her life after everything they both had been through, so she settled for kissing him again, another long and deep kiss that Nick eagerly returned.

Eventually the sounds of the Fangmeyers, McHorn, and Francine coming back out of the asylum, pushing along handcuffed criminals and conspirators ahead of them, made Judy break the kiss and oh-so-reluctantly stand up, Nick following suit a moment later. Taking his hand in hers, she settled for looking up into those green eyes she loved so much. “How did you find me? I managed to grab a phone and tried calling you, but only managed to get Gideon Grey of all people!”

To his credit, Nick’s face and ears flushed heavily at this. As if to save a little of his dignity Beth came back over and joined the conversation, a ZPD cruiser’s first-aid kit in her hands. “Fru Fru Big called us after Jack Savage made a televised threat to the entire city. She offered up the entire Big criminal empire so that we could stop Savage, and that included how to corner Koslov. He, in turn, pointed us this way in exchange for charging him only for his crimes BEFORE helping bring Savage into the city.”

“I guess even mammals like Koslov have a line they won’t cross,” said Judy, offering no resistance as Nick started leading her toward the waiting vehicles and dotting disinfectant over the cuts Jack had left. “And good work here, Blaine… Beth. We… probably should have tried arresting Miss Black…”

The hare shrugged, a smile playing over her lips. “She resisted arrest and reached for a gun. Nothing to be done about it. So sad, such a shame.”

Judy sighed, smiled and shook her head, watching as an ambulance joined the cruisers at the bridge. Next up: Jack Savage.


	12. Chapter 12

Queen’s Harbor Inn was a low-key establishment, a two-story brick structure built along the frozen channels of Tundratown, far back in the days when the promise of Zootopia was still mostly a mere promise. Originally thought up as a safe haven in case of prey lynch mobs, the building’s basement was a veritable fortress, reinforced with steel and concrete, the doors into the inn refurbished bank vault doors, a number of escape passages going out as far as half a mile away, its own separate plumbing and power system, and enough stores to last for three months. And this was all before the modern niceties and defensive measures installed when Koslov purchased the establishment, under several layers of fake names and with Jack Savage’s funding, a year ago.

Jack sat at a round table near the back of the room, upon a raised platform that once upon a time had been a stage for performances. He tapped against the worn oak wood, ignoring the looks from Balor and Takei at their ends of the table as he stared over the assembled mob captains and lieutenants. Every sort of mammal could be seen in that room, talking in hushed tones over the state of Zootopia, trading whispers and rumors of what had happened to the crime lords not present. Koslov, arrested by the ZPD. Anjali, surrendered without a fight. Sarabi, killed by her own second-in-command after a fierce gun battle with police, the new lioness in charge then surrendering or getting killed or fleeing the country or—and so on the rumors went. Jack paid them only partial attention, more focused upon the clock hanging from the opposite wall.

Just as Balor looked on the verge of jumping to his hooves and speaking his mind, a maned wolf staggered down the stairs from the inn above, immediately ceasing all conversation as all there turned to look at him. Jack watched the bear weave through the crowded tables toward the raised platform, his trepidation growing the nearer the canine got. “You were assigned to the asylum. What’s happened there? Where’s Miss Black?”  
Upon reaching the stage the maned wolf took a moment to catch his breath before answering. “Hopps escaped! There was a big police raid, SWAT and everything! Almost everyone was arrested, but Miss Black, she—Hopps, Wilde, and that hare, Blaine, they killed her! Sent her flying off the bridge and down the waterfall! I saw it from a window!”

“Miss Black is… dead?” Jack ceased tapping his nails against the table and stared at the messenger, the dread of before flowering into full-blown horror and sadness. He tried, hard, for even an ounce of disbelief, but he knew his reputation did his job. Nobody in a right state of mind would dare lie to him about something like this. “My friend… my truest friend… is DEAD!?”

The maned wolf swallowed and backed away, eyes roving as if for an escape route. “Sorry, boss, I—there was no helping her!”

“Of course there wasn’t,” said Jack, lips twitching into a smile. From the corner of his eye he saw the two remaining crime lords lean back in their seats away from him, but he didn’t care. As quickly as they came, the horror and sadness withered into gut-gnawing rage; at Judy Hopps, at the ZPD, at Zootopia, at the entire criminal element surrounding him in that room. “Of course there wasn’t any helping her, you tiny, sad little mongrel.”

The maned wolf shrunk away as if beaten. Murmurs started through the criminal crowds, Jack’s ears picking up more than a hint of dissension in them. Takei leaned forward. “You can act as liaison with Miss White, can’t you? This hasn’t ruined the plan after all our hard work, has it?”

Jack turned his smile on the old tanuki mob boss, thoughts picking through the stages of Plan A as he and Black had decided on, even as he turned his desires to Plan B. “Ruined? No. Not at all. Miss White will be upset by the loss of her soldier, but events will—”

“Enough of this!” Balor leapt from his chair, looming over the table to slam his fist down with stone-breaking force onto Jack’s hand on the table. “Enough with the secret plans and nonsense! You’ve gotten most of us killed or arrested and I… I won’t…”

Whispers danced through the watching criminals. Jack stared at Balor, almost smirking as the boar stumbled upon noticing none of the pain of a hand getting crushed. He lifted Balor’s fist with his free hand, the crime lord’s face paling further as all his muscle was overpowered as if it meant nothing, and drew his “crushed” hand back off the table. Now smirking for real, he flexed and clenched the hand in full view of the watching crowds, just to rub it in that nothing had been hurt but Balor’s pride.

“Now, as I was saying… events will proceed just fine. You two hash out who gets whose peoples and properties now that Koslov, Anjali, and Sarabi out of the picture. I’ll take care of everything city-side.”

“G-good.” Balor took a file out of a jacket pocket and began working on one of his tusks, a nervous tic if Jack had ever seen one. “This affair has been bloody awful from the start. The sooner it’s over and done, the better.”

“Don’t worry,” said Jack, looking at the boar and imagining him charred and mangled. He would do it for Black. “It will all be over soon.”

***

Beyond the walls of Chief Bogo’s office, the ZPD was a madhouse of activity, the holding cells still crowded from the afternoon’s police raids, officers coming and going constantly to transfer them to more permanent jail cells. Consultants from City Hall weaved about for whatever officer they could find, trying to get some kind of firm grasp of what was happening and where it was going. Journalists and photographers skulked about with little supervision, waiting for a candid moment or act of police brutality to break out.

Within the walls of Chief Bogo’s office there hung a deceptive calm that Judy found almost as unnerving as Cliffside Asylum. At her insistence and Nick’s reluctance she’d gone straight to the ZPD rather than the hospital to tell all she’d experienced and learned. So now there she sat in one of the chairs in front of Chief Bogo’s desk, a sable marten in a lab coat and scrubs tending to the various cuts and bruises across her body. Yet Bogo, to Judy’s annoyance, had insisted on waiting until the ZPD’s on-site nurse had finished.

“Well it’s not the kind of expert work an actual hospital would do, but this should suffice for now.” The sable snipped off the last stitch’s dangling thread with a pair of scissors, before trading them for a bottle of antiseptic which she began spritzing over Judy’s wounds. Judy flinched at the burning sensation, but kept still. “There’ll probably be some inflammation and a mild fever within the next few days, but I don’t think you’ll need to worry about any major infections. Keep the dressings on that ear changed frequently and it should heal fine as well."

“Thank you, Nurse Sabine,” said Bogo from his seat behind the desk, Judy nodding her agreement. Once the nurse had packed up her things and left, and once Nick had climbed up onto the seat to hold Judy at his side, the cape buffalo leaned back in his chair and regarded Judy over crossed arms. “Now then, with that out of the way… it’s good to have you back and alive, Judy. You had a lot of us scared there, after the disaster at the Complex and nobody being able to find you. We would all appreciate it if you didn’t EVER do that again. Am I clear?”

“Clear as crystal, sir,” said Judy, and as she took Nick’s hand in her own and squeezed she realized it was the truth. Putting her life on the line in service to the city was one thing, but that encounter with Jack Savage, the nightmare of his origin, was something she could go the rest of her life without experiencing again.

“Good. Now then.” Bogo glanced over to where Beth stood off to the side, near his map of Zootopia, before looking back at Judy. “I believe Officers Blaine and Wilde filled you in on their sides of things from the morning’s disaster to now on the drive over. Now, if you can, tell us what happened to you. ONLY if you can. I understand these kinds of situations can be very traumatizing, and if you’d rather save this for the morning—”

“No!” shouted Judy, flinching the next moment at the urgency in her voice and the looks this made Bogo and Nick give her. “That is, no sir, I think it’d be best to get through this as soon as possible. I can do this.”

“Very well. Proceed.”

It took fifteen minutes, perhaps, for Judy to recount the last day of her life, from her attempted arrest and fight with Jack Savage to her escape from the asylum and defeating of Miss Black, including every detail she could remember of Jack’s childhood story. By the end of it, despite her best efforts, she found herself shaking with the enormity of her brush with madness and death. It hadn’t even dawned on her until then how little time all of it had actually taken.

The only thing keeping her from doing more than merely tremble was the tightness and warmth of Nick’s arm around her, the look on his muzzle as if he never planned to let her out of her sight again.

“What was that he meant, about Miss Black and Miss… White? Not liking his Plan B? Is there some friction in the ranks there?”

Judy looked over at Beth and shrugged. “I haven’t a clue. Honestly, I was still trying to process his story from childhood. I probably only remember Black and White because I had plenty of time to think on things.”

“Guess it’s a moot point now,” said Nick with forced levity. “Ol’ Blacky’s probably made it to open water by now, if patrols along the river haven’t found her body yet. Though, a leopard with half his face eaten off… now THAT rings a bell in my head…”

“Taylor Monahan,” said Judy, having reached the same realization. “The Wendigo Killer. He did say he owed his injuries to a hunting accident… and the tiger, Delgato, maybe…”

“Outback Island…”

Judy snapped her gaze to Bogo, ears shooting up straight and Nick stiffening up beside her in alarm at the low, subdued tone to the police chief’s voice. Beth stepped away from the map, a hand coming up to rest on the desk. “Sir?”

Bogo sat there, chin resting on his interlocked hands as he stared off into nothing. Judy had never noticed before how… old, he looked.

“What I am about to say,” he said at last, still not looking at them, “never leaves this room. EVER. Am I understood?”

Judy looked to Nick, then Beth, seeing her own uncertainty in their eyes. “Chief… do you know what Jack was talking about?”

Here Bogo looked at them, though only for a moment. Then he sighed and returned his gaze to his office door past them. “It was 20, 22 years ago, I think. I was still just a captain then, not chief yet, so I don’t have all the details, but one morning we get the call that the entirety of Outback Island, the WHOLE DISTRICT, had been set ablaze.”

Nick groaned beside Judy, a hand dragging over his face. “The Outback Fire… I remember that from the news. Back in the day it was the worst disaster Zootopia had seen since the Mass Scurry of ’17.”

Bogo nodded and continued. “In those days, Outback Island was less of a District and more of a… nature preserve. Somewhere city mammals could go to see truly natural life and beauty. Or so the brochures said, anyway. The official story given was that an experimental weather balloon went down over the jungle and started the blaze. It had been an especially hot summer with noticeably little rainfall, so people thought it reasonable.”

“Most people,” said Beth with a bitter smile. “Honey’s always thought there was more to the story than a mere weather balloon. Came up with conspiracies like a government experiment gone awry, or aliens delivering a warning for peace. Guess she was right, to an extent. Not that I can tell her.”

“When we arrived once the blaze had gotten under control,” Bogo continued, as if nobody else had spoken, “it didn’t take long to find the bones. Hundreds of them scattered across the still-smoking wastes, of countless species. It took later, after the experts had gone through, to realize the vast majority of the bones belonged to… to children. By then the records had been sealed, the full facts locked up by politicians with suddenly-full pockets and an all-new desire to ‘protect Zootopian sensibilities.’ The sole survivor we found, a terribly burned rabbit kit, was never claimed by a family and never offered a family name, so he was put in the foster system. That’s the extent of all I know on the matter.”

Silence consumed the room as each mammal there fell into their own thoughts. Judy stared down at the carpet, finding little distraction from the horror in its stripes of alternating green. She had always believed that the world overall was a good place, Zootopia most of all. Problems still existed, speciesism still hurt so many, but hard work and trust would surely make each new day better than the last. Lionheart, Bellwether, Monahan and Delgato, and most recently Jack Savage, had all done their part to darken this ideal, to muddy it, to show her that not all mammals WANTED the world to be a better place. But this… the enormity of the horror so easily swept under the rug…

“It’s no wonder Savage goes on so much about remembering.”

All eyes turned to Beth at the office door. The hare stood resolute before their stares, something remarkably close to disappointment in her gaze as she grabbed the door handle. “Maybe this is the reason for everything. The murder and mayhem. Can’t say I’d take being forgotten like this all that well either.”

“Frosty, come on, you don’t mean that…”

She looked at Nick, hackles rising at the nickname. She opened the door and backed out, never looking away. “My name is Bethany Blaine, Detective Wilde-Hopps, and as Savage would probably say, don’t forget it.”

“Beth—”

The slamming door cut Judy off. She stared at it a short second, before sighing and standing to look back at Bogo. “Sir, should we…?”

“She’ll be fine,” said Bogo, though the cape buffalo didn’t look entirely confident in that statement. “I don’t hold her anger over this… issue, against her. I don’t like the situation any more than she does. Or you two do, for that matter.”

“Right,” said Nick, standing and hopping down from the chair. Judy, accepting his offered hand to help her down without complaint, couldn’t tell if he was trying to sound sarcastic or not. “Well then, if there’s nothing else that requires immediate attention, I would really to bring this complete nightmare of a day to a close before anything else happens.”

“Agreed,” said Bogo. “Get some rest, you two. Today’s going to be a lazy stroll through the park compared to tomorrow.”

Thinking back on the day she’d had, Judy deeply hoped tomorrow would turn out otherwise.

***

With as tired and worn as Judy felt and knew Nick felt, dinner was a mostly quiet and subdued affair of Tofu Tico carryout eaten in the peace of Marian Wilde's kitchen. Mostly quiet, with the first half of the meal given noise by Marian fussing over Judy's injuries, thanking anyone listening for her safe return and asking, again and again to Judy's embarrassed enjoyment, if there might be anything she could do or get for the rabbit. At last, and at Nick's insistence, she caved and requested an extra pillow for the guest room.

After that came the Muzzletime call with Judy's parents. They had sent off a quick text on the drive to the ZPD to see Bogo, something just to let them know she was okay and safe, but Judy knew they needed more than that. In total honesty, she did too. The reactions to her inch-shorter left ear were as bad as she'd expected, Bonnie actually letting out a swear and Stu devolving into frantic, breathless sobs it took nearly ten minutes to calm him down from. For one terrifying instant Judy thought they might revert back to their overly protective, "Come back to Bunnyburrow right this instant" stance. But they didn't, and Judy didn't know how to feel about that.

Now, fed, washed, and dried, Judy allowed herself to relax in Marian’s guest bed, back to Nick as she sank into his deep embrace. She basked in the warm, predatory scent of her fox as it surrounded her, speaking to some deeper part of her mind of safety, of a warm den, of soft kisses in the dark and gentle claws caressing unimpeded.

“Carrots… I don’t want you returning to the case tomorrow.”

Judy hmmed, nuzzling into the crook of her fox’s arm. “I know, Nick.”

“The thought of you going out in your state… of maybe running headfirst into Savage all over again, alone again… terrifies me.”

She leaned further in, lifting his hand from where it rested on her belly to kiss the paw pads. “I know, Nick.”

“And there… is not a single thing I can do to talk you out of it, is there? I mean, I know how ironic it is for me to even say that, with how earlier we were arguing about you staying in Bunnyburrow as long as you did, but—”

“Nick,” she said, amused by the rambling turn he had taken. When he said nothing else, only looking down at her with full attention, she sighed and twisted around in his arms to face him. Reaching up, she caressed his cheek, just along the jawline like he enjoyed it. “I’m staying this time, Slick. I’m not running away.”

“I’m not saying for you to do that,” said Nick, though to Judy’s ears he sounded unsure.

“I know,” she said back, “but it’s what I feel like I’ve been doing. I told you already, the first night we came back, that I was scared. Well, I still am. I’m more scared now than I was before, actually. People like Jack Savage terrify me.”

“He terrifies me too…”

“But you came for me anyway.” Her hand moved up, petting one of his ears now. “And now I’m choosing to stay and make sure Savage gets put behind bars like he deserves. If he’s so obsessed with having the spotlight and being remembered, then he’s going to be remembered as just one more psycho good ol’ Wilde-Hopps took down.”

“Just one more psycho,” Nick repeated, seeming to mull it over for a moment before nodding and leaning down to kiss Judy, sending tingles racing up and down her spine. “I can live with that.”

***

_"Beth! I heard that Hopps is back and safe and stuff! Yay! =D Hope you get home soon, I've got your favorite pasta cooking!"_

_"Beth, is everything okay? You always respond to texts. Guess there's a lot of paperwork after today and you gotta stay late. Be safe!"_

_"Beth?"_

_"You're starting to scare me. Please text or call or something"_

_"If you don't msg right now im hacking cameras to find you dammit"_

Beth sat leaned back on the ZPD motorcycle, gripping the handlebars with one hand and holding her phone with the other. Ahead of her, stretching on beyond sight into the sea fog, ran the old Lionsgate Bridge connecting Savannah Central to Outback Island, little more than a railway flanked by a pair of service roads. It waited there ahead of her, patient, hungry. The path to breaking whatever high hopes and trust she had in her city.

Her thumb hovered over the CALL button, afraid, uncertain of what she would say to explain herself. Her thoughts had been a raging mess when she'd stormed out of Bogo's office to the ZPD vehicle lot. She couldn't even tell herself what she was doing out there, let alone tell someone else. By all rights she hated Jack Savage for hurting so many people, for putting her life and the lives of her friends in so much danger. Yet, she’d be lying if she said she couldn’t relate to righteous fury over such a traumatic experience being so routinely covered up…

“I’m only here… because Outback Island is one of the places Tundratown Truckers shipped to.” That, at least, she could hold onto as firm reasoning. Nothing was on Outback Island now but barren rock and a smoldering junkyard. It was a developing haven for birds and small reptiles. There shouldn’t be any reason for semis to be going out there.

Beth’s phone dinged as another text from Honey popped up. _‘Right, hacked cameras. The hell you doing at Lionsgate Bridge!?'_

Beth groaned, ears flopping down as she looked up and over her shoulder at a blinking traffic camera over the intersection behind her. Halfway between touched and annoyed, she shook her head and turned back to her phone.

_“Don’t worry. Just hunch. Don’t call cops.”_

_“Beth, darling, ‘don’t worry’ and ‘don’t call cops’ are 9 times out of 10 signals to worry and call cops.”_

Unable to think of any way to dispute that, Beth chuckled and shook her head. _“You know what I mean. Head to bed, Hun. Home before you know it. ZPD’s honor.”_

Honey’s next text took nearly two minutes, judging by the clock on Beth’s phone, to the point where the hare nearly put her phone up and started riding down the bridge. _“This is about all the news, isn’t it?”_

“I…” Beth shook her head, looking again to the traffic camera, then to her phone, then to the camera, then back again to her phone. She licked her lips, thoughts straying to the tablet Clawhauser’d had pulled up at his desk in the main foyer, the cheetah practically vibrating with glee as he showed the news report off to every officer, criminal, and civilian to walk by.

_"—ZPD correspondent now reports that Lieutenant Judy Wilde-Hopps has been found alive and well, following an intense police raid of what insiders are calling terrorist Jack Savage's primary hideout in the abandoned Cliffside Asylum. Longtime residents of Zootopia will remember Cliffside as where former mayor Leodore Lionheart held captive several predators turned savage during the Night Howler Crisis._

_“While Savage himself was not apprehended in the raid, ZNN can confirm that his second-in-command, operating under the codename 'Miss Black' perished during an altercation with Wilde-Hopps and her husband, Detective Nick Wilde-Hopps. It has also been reported, though unverified at the moment, that Lieutenant Wilde-Hopps suffered minor injuries during her imprisonment. We at ZNN wish her a speedy—”_

That had been the last Beth had heard before storming away to the garage. Her thoughts then she typed into her phone now, mashing the enter key with a savage satisfaction. _“SHE DIDN’T EVEN DO ANYTHING! I SAVED HER LIFE! I KILLED BLACK! I SAVED ALL THOSE MAMMALS IN THE AQUARIUM! I’M THE HERO!”_

Honey’s answering text came almost instantly. _“Is my understanding that not enough for you, Miss Savage?”_

Beth felt like she’d been punched in the gut. Looking up at the bridge to Outback Island again, she grasped finally the idiocy she’d almost driven headlong into, the haze of her rage lifting. “I’m not… I have a good… I just…”  
Every attempt for an excuse to herself fell flat before it could even fully form. Beth swallowed, hand shaking as she shoved her phone back into its holster, before she revved her engine and turned back around for home.


	13. Chapter 13

“Squad 1, in position at the elevators.”

“Squad 2, getting into position at the stairwell now. Good to go on your mark, Hopps.”

“Roger that, Fangmeyer. Proceeding.”

Judy lowered her hand from her ear-mounted radio and turned to regard the three mammals in full SWAT gear beside her in the elevator. Nick stood loading shells into his shotgun, while Beth double-checked the armor plates on the fourth member of their team. She’d never worked with Jarvis before, but the coyote had been in Beth’s class and the hare seemed to trust in him enough. More importantly, he was one of the few members of the ZPD Precinct 1 small enough to work in the apartment they were raiding in the first place. They’d had to borrow mammals from Precinct 5 just to make up most of Squad 2.

“You all remember the floor plan?” At their answering nods she continued. “Good. Nick, take point. Jarvis, cover my six while Blaine brings up the rear. Check for corners and don’t hesitate to shoot to kill, but watch for friendly fire. We go in 5, 4—”

She counted down from 3 on her fingers, hitting the button to open the door at 1. As the elevator slid open Nick took the lead, advancing down the apartment hallway with shotgun trained exclusively on the door at the end. Judy covered him, flicking her rabbit-scaled UMP submachine gun at each door they passed, half-expecting armed criminals to leap from each one.

After what felt like the Longest Hallway in the World, they reached the door to what Koslov claimed to be Jack Savage’s apartment, owned under the name “Jaclynn Blaine.” A part of Judy wondered if that had been Savage’s real name, once upon a time, but that wasn’t a part to be indulged at that moment in time.

Judy, Beth, and Jarvis stacking up next to the door, Nick took position in front of it and looked to Judy again. She signaled that he was a go. At once he aimed and fired, blasting off the door hinges with two clean shots. A swift kick and the door fell inward, Nick leading the charge into the apartment beyond with a shout of “ZPD, FREEZE!”

They found nobody in the central living room beyond a laptop, on which played Runaway Train. Judy turned to Beth and Jarvis and signaled for them to stay and watch the door, before signaling for Nick to follow her. Together they swept and cleared each room in the apartment, every bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and closet, even inside the fridge and out on the balcony, before rejoining their fellow officers in the living room. To Judy’s frustration, they found nothing, no sign of life or wrongdoing more obvious than a few illegal guns lying on the bed.

“Damn it!” Reaching up to her earpiece once more, Judy gave the all-clear to Squad 2, before patching through to Dispatch and Chief Bogo. “We’ve got nothing, Chief. I’m bringing up Squad 2 to do a more thorough search for documents or anything, but Savage is gone.”

“Roger that, Hopps. Do you think he knew you were coming?”

She glanced at the laptop on the coffee table. Something about it bugged her, but unable to put her claw on what, she set it aside for the moment. “Not sure. You’d expect so, since he must have known Koslov was arrested, but from the looks of things he must have left in a hurry. The movie he was watching is still playing.”

“Good choice of movie too,” quipped Nick from a few paces off, examining a suspicious stain on a wall. “Though, the book was better.”

“Can it, Wilde,” said Bogo over the radio, not missing a beat. “I want you two back the moment Fangmeyer gets to work up there. Gazelle’s charity rally is in a few hours and I want all the mammalpower possible there.”

“Understood, Sir. Wilde-Hopps out.”

Turning to Beth and Jarvis still keeping watch at the apartment door, she took the momentary lull in action as they waited for Squad 2 to arrive to size the hare up. She’d been quieter than usual since they met up that morning, radiating a sense of guilt so heavy that even McHorn had been able to pick up on it. “Beth, you good?”

The hare looked her way, their eyes meeting for a moment, before looking back to the windows across the living room. “Fine, Lieutenant. Just wish we’d gotten the bastard right here and now.”

“You and me both.” And though she knew there was more bothering Beth than that, Judy decided to let it rest for the moment. She heard Fangmeyer leading the way down the hallway outside, and like Bogo had said, they’d need all the mammalpower they could muster in a few hours, and there was still a lot Judy wanted done before then.

It still made her worry, though. Where was Jack Savage?

***

“Judy! Nick!”

Perking up at the sound of her name as she left the armory, Judy smiled and hopped over to Clawhauser at the front greeting desk, trusting Nick to keep up behind her. “Hey, Ben. Sorry we haven’t had much chance to talk, with everything that’s been going on. How’s it going?”

“Oh, just as fine as usual. I’m just always happy to see you up and about! It’s been a rough couple of days for ya! Wish you’d had more luck this morning.”

“Don’t I know it,” said Judy. At her friend’s weaker-than-usual smile she frowned and hopped up to lay both arms on the counter in front of Clawhauser, not caring how undignified the rest of her looked dangling off the side. “Hey, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Weeell…” Clawhauser coughed in a clear bid for time, setting down his half-finished donut before leaning in as if afraid to speak too loud. “I know it’s really petty compared to everyone else’s problems, but Bogo’s got me manning the front desk like usual this evening.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Nick leaned against the counter beside Judy, hand grasping blindly for a moment before finding the donut box and plucking one out for himself. “You always run desk duty.”

“I know, I know, I just…” Clawhauser grabbed up his donut again and finished it off in two bites before continuing, bringing to Judy’s mind images of someone downing a shot of alcohol to steel their nerves. “Voting for mayor is next week. Gazelle’s charity rally is going to be her last big push, the one where she lays all her cards on the table. And not just for herself or Zootopia, but for everyone hurt by that, that… oooh, Savage scoundrel!”

Judy could see where this was going. “And you wish you could be one of the cops keeping an eye on the place for Savage’s threat?” At his embarrassed nod she sighed and shook her head. “Sorry, Ben, but you’re going to be needed here today more than any other time. If Savage tries to make good on that video he sent out—”

“And I’d bet my bottom dollar that he will,” added Nick in between mouthfuls of donut.

Judy shot her partner a glare before continuing. “The point is, we’ll need everyone doing the best they can wherever they’re best at. And you, ZPD Officer Benjamin Clawhauser, are the best darned Dispatcher and Mission Control this precinct has ever seen, and everyone knows it!”

Clawhauser seemed to sit taller in his chair at every word Judy spoke. When she finished he grinned wide at her, giving the impression to several passersby that a portion of the sun had decided to give the lobby a visit. “Gosh, thanks, Jude! It’s great having friends like you and Nick around here!”

“And it’s great to have a friend like you around here, Ben!”

A clearing throat at her side made Judy look at Nick, who began tapping his wrist as if there were a watch there. “Ooh, right.” She looked back at Clawhauser. “Sorry to cut and run, but it’s almost time for Chief Bogo’s big meeting before the rally.”

“Don’t let me keep you then,” said Clawhauser, digging back into his donut box. “Just be sure to give that Jack Savage what he has coming!”

***

The meeting in the bullpen involved every cop who could be spared from performing the most bare-bones of patrols, almost every other case set aside in the name of the largest concerted effort Judy had ever seen the ZPD organize. The dark, cynical side of her, a side she hid even as it grew day by day, wondered how many of the mammals in the room with her and Nick would remain to see another bullpen meeting.

"Everyone settle down," said Chief Bogo, though the command was hardly needed. After a moment he gestured to the cork board behind and to his left, where had been tacked a number of floor plans and maps. "Zootopia University. Our premiere college of higher learning, and this evening, the site of mayoral candidate Gazelle's charity rally. The rally Jack Savage has promised to kill Gazelle at."

Growls and snarls, roars and slamming fists, filled the room, taking every ounce of Judy's restraint not to join in. The cuts across her body, the back of her neck in particular, still stung.

“SHUT IT!”

Once the shouted command had been obeyed, somewhat unwillingly on a few mammals’ parts, Bogo continued. “We’re going to have the entire campus under watch, but the focus of our efforts will be here,” he said as he pointed to the central photo of a four-story brick and glass structure, twice again the size of the ZPD headquarters and following a similar pronged style.

"This is Oppenmouser Auditorium,” said Bogo, answering the unspoken question. “Where Gazelle will be giving her speech during the latter half of the event. Francine, McHorn, Jones, I want you three guarding the trio of entrances along the back, above the audience. Naylor, Griffin, you have the two side entrances. Anderson and Rhinowitz, you've got the doors behind the stage to the preparation areas and the hall to the banquet and dining area. None of you are to leave your assigned stations without calling in for a replacement, and I want full radio contact every 5 minutes.

“Wilde, Jarvis, Growly, Adam Fangmeyer,” he went on, “you’ve got the auditorium roof. Cover the entrances, keep an eye on the surrounding grounds, and again, maintain stringent radio contact. Understood?”

A chorus of affirmatives filled the room. Bogo nodded and gestured to another photo, what looked like the rear half of Oppenmouser Auditorium. “Before the speech, Gazelle will be having an open dinner and meet & greet with supporters and media. Hopps, Carla Fangmeyer, Blaine, you’ll be with me patrolling this event. A lot of people, a lot of chances for Savage or one of his goons to sneak in. Grizzoli, Snarloff, you’re covering the main entrances.

Ramsay, you have the kitchen. In addition to this, there will be members of SWAT at stand-by in vans nearby to the building. Is everyone clear regarding their positions?”

Francine raised her trunk, waiting for Bogo to nod her way before speaking. “What about officers Wolford and Hogrid, sir?”

“Officer Hogrid will be keeping an eye on Mayor Swinton, in case this threat against Gazelle is merely a distraction for another attempt on her life instead. Officer Wolford will be assisting Officer Clawhauser here at the station. While Clawhauser will be helping maintain radio coherency, Wolford has been allowed access to the university’s private security camera system and will be keeping careful watch through there.”

The wave of satisfied and relieved sighs that passed through the bullpen at this nearly made Judy grin. It was well-earned. There was no better mammal to have at your back than Wolford.

“And on that note,” said Bogo, bringing the room once more to attention, “Wolford will have made up detailed floor plans for the auditorium and related buildings for each of you, which you will find at Clawhauser’s desk. It’s four hours to the start of the rally, that means two hours until we move out to get ourselves set up, and I want each of you able to remember the layout and every possible entrance and exit to this place as easily as you can remember the names of your siblings!”

“That might be harder for some of us than it is for others,” quipped Nick, drawing all eyes to him. “I’m pretty certain they ran out of names and just started giving Judy’s youngest siblings serial numbers.”

And like that, the tension that had been slowly building up in the room at the enormity of the task ahead of them broke, every mammal there letting out at the very least a chuckle, most giving a full-bellied laugh, Carla Fangmeyer going as far as toppling out of her chair before her husband could catch her. Judy smiled and gripped his hand beneath the table. Even Bogo smirked. “Shut it, Wilde”

***

“Testing, testing, this is a radio testing. Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally—”

“Golly what a day,” finished Judy, adjusting her ear bud as she entered the banquet hall and did a quick scan of her surroundings. Plush violet carpet; tables bedecked with cream tablecloths and fine silverware, spaced wide enough apart for mammals to easily move in-between; the entire opposite wall from her a window looking out on the university’s flower gardens; a rabbit string quartet in the corner, playing what Judy’s ears told her was a slowed-down, string-only version of Try Everything. And then the mammals, more than she had honestly expected to come with Jack Savage’s threat overhead, most of them in fine suits and dresses that made Judy feel alarmingly out of place in her ZPD bodysuit.

“Roger that. How’re things looking down there, Carrots?”

“Expensive,” she said back, passing by a table of gnus in heated debate over plates of steaming pasta. A few paces ahead, near a wall decorated with plaques commemorating famous mammals who’d graduated from the university, she spotted a pair of refreshingly familiar snow-white ears poking up over a gaggle of chattering groundhogs. “Expensive and tasteless. Breaking radio contact now, remember to keep the channel clear for emergencies. Okay, Nick?”

“Roger dodger, codger.”

Rolling her eyes, Judy circled around the group and joined Beth in front of the wall of plaques. She watched a moment, smiling as the hare stared up at the noteworthy alumni with open admiration. Mayor Swinton's photo stood front and center. “You like fame, don’t you, Officer Blaine?”

Beth jumped and turned to Judy with a look of guilt on her face. “Judy, uh, sir! I uh…”

“Relax,” said Judy, turning around as the groundhogs moved along and surveying the room again. She noted the Gazelle supporters who kept glancing their way, the way more than a few mammals were keeping none-too-discreet eyes on the exits, the way hardly anyone actually seemed to be eating the delicious-smelling food being served. “Just relax. People don’t like to see nervous cops.”

“Sorry,” said Beth, turning to join her in looking the room over. And to Judy’s relief she did manage to visibly calm down, or at least to keep her nose from twitching and ears from flicking at every random noise. “I’ve just never been brought on for something as important as this.”

Judy perked a brow at her taller companion. “Really? Because I think there are a few hundred Aquarium survivors who’d say otherwise.”

“I mean something we know from the start to be as important as this! All this!” She gestured around them, almost wildly, making Judy flinch. “It’s just… you know… bigger than I ever expected to have to handle less than a year in the ZPD. It’s probably not something the famed Judy Hopps would understand.”

Judy blinked, caught off guard by the bite in her companion's voice those last few words. She looked over, noting now Beth doing her level best not to look at Judy. "Hey..."

"I'm sorry," said the hare, turning halfway away from Judy. "That was rude of me. I shouldn't have--"

"Beth." At her name the hare turned back to look at Judy, who simply smiled. "Come on. Tell me your story."

Beth took a moment to stare into Judy's eyes, searching in there it seemed for any hint of disinterest. Then she sighed and looked away again, gaze sweeping the banquet hall. "I come from a... mixed family. Rabbit and hare, though you know how weird genetics seem to get the more different the parents are, and I turned out just about entirely hare, at least appearance-wise."

Judy nodded to show that she was listening. Beth continued. "Growing up, I never felt like my parents got entirely... invested in me. Like I was just another daughter, interchangeable with any of the rest. And... it doesn't help that I know why. It's... it's not something I like to think about, but... before I was born, like two litters before I was born, a bunch of my older siblings disappeared. 50 of them."

"50..." Judy gasped, a hand flying to her mouth as she stared at Beth in newfound horror. For her, not at her. "You mean--"

Clawhauser's voice came over the radio in a general message, cutting her off before she could finish the thought. "Hey, Francine's reporting in about a weird smell in the auditorium. Could we get a sniffer in there?"

"On it," said Bogo. Then, "Wilde, get down there, see what you can find."

"Can do, boss."

Judy bit her lip, resisting the urge to wish her husband good luck. Doing that would be acknowledging he needed the luck, and that would be bad luck. But even so, she couldn't resist crossing her fingers as she watched Chief Bogo cross the room to whisper an update on the situation to a remarkably composed Gazelle. The fat polar bear she'd been conversing with across her table, at least, looked suitable uncomfortable at least.

"Why Wilde?" asked Beth once radio silence fell, sounding the height of gratefulness for having a chance to change the topic. "Naylor's in the auditorium and a wolf, I'd think he could sniff the smell out."

"It's not just about having a powerful sense of smell," said Judy, relieved at the safer conversation waters, not even sure how she would have handled that last subject. She remembered back to Nick's argument with Bertrand and couldn't hold back her grin. "It's about training too. Nick went through extensive tests and training to be able to make out even individual chemicals. I'm going to assume Officer Naylor hasn't yet."

"Heh, just like Wilde to stick his nose where it doesn't belong."

Judy groaned, turning to stare dismissively at the weasel in the garish blue suit and top hat strolling her way from the door out to the restrooms. "Duke Weselton. Long time, no see."

Though dressed to the nines and looking like he'd finally discovered the wonders of shampoo and a comb, the weasel's teeth (and breath) were as bad as ever as he growled at her. "It's WEASELTON."

"Not if your book's author bio page is to be believed, Mr. Weselton, sir." Beth's look of embarrassed sympathy almost fooled Judy, making her chuckle into her knuckles. "You might want to talk to your agent about that."

"Wilde, here. Found an unmarked cardboard box under some of the seating. Doesn't look to have anything in it you need to worry about. I mean, unless you're a college student who just heard your parents are coming for a surprise visit."

Judy barely kept in her laugh at this. Weaselton's right eye gave an impressive twitch as he turned his gaze to Beth. He looked her up and down and gave a dismissive snort. "Great. As if we needed another rabbit running amok in this city."

Beth bristled at that remark, fists clenching as she took a step toward the smirking weasel. Judy, thinking this had gone far enough, stepped between them, resting a hand on the taller cop's shoulder. "Hey, how about you take a quick look over at the refreshments, check in with Clawhauser?"

For a moment Beth looked ready to stay and argue the point, making Judy glance worriedly at Bogo across the room. But then the hare deflated, shrugging out of Judy’s hold to turn and march away.

Judy watched her go until she passed the table with the polar bear, now starting to look nauseous, before turning back to Weaselton with a level glare. “It’s too bad weasel is in your name, Duke. To me you seem more like a vulture, or a particularly gluttonous snake.”

“While you’re still just a real knight in shining armor, aintcha?” Weaselton snagged a glass of champagne off a passing tray and downed it in one gulp, smacking his lips in exaggerated fashion. “Don’t know what you’re complaining about, Flatfoot. I just wrote a book lots of people’re buying. You’re the one who did all the stuff IN the book. So I make a few bucks off it, who cares?”

Judy decided not to gratify him with the response “I would,” instead turning and bringing her hand up to her earpiece. “Someone please tell me there’s something interesting going on elsewhere? I literally have the worst company right now.”

“I just saw a bird fly into a window here,” came Snarloff’s voice in response. “Otherwise, I got nothing. Are we sure Savage is going to do something here? Maybe he just wanted us to look paranoid and junk.”

“Better safe than sorry,” spoke Bogo over the line. “Now I mean it, OFF the radio unless it’s important.”

Judy mumbled her acknowledgment of this, thoughts already going elsewhere. She wandered through the milling mammals, doing her best to ignore the pointed looks, the not-hushed enough whispers of her scars. Reaching the windows, she stood and stared out at the Tundratown snow, worrying her bottom lip in anxiety, impatience.

Where was Jack Savage?


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: chapter 14 unfortunately contains some intense graphic imagery not present in the rest of the story. Readers with a dislike for blood, gore, and maiming are advised to proceed through chapter 14 with caution.

Tink tink tink tink.

Judy paused in her light conversation with the well-to-do businesspig from Bunnyburrow and turned, along with most the rest of those in the room, to the source of the noise. Gazelle, dressed in a sharply cut suit a creamy gold, stood upon a slightly raised portion of the floor near the back and center of the room, tapping a spoon against her champagne glass and smiling her ever-genuine smile. Were it not for the bags under her eyes and the grey starting to creep into her shock of hair, Judy might've thought the stresses of the last few days hadn't reached her at all.

Once all attention had turned to her and all conversation had, for the most part, ceased, Gazelle set the spoon and glass down on a nearby table and clasped her hands together. "Welcome, everyone. Before we move on with the rest of the evening I would just like to thank you, all of you, for coming. It has been an awful week for all of Zootopia, and I am heartened to see us come together in times of crisis."

Judy glanced in the direction she had last seen Weaselton lurking and couldn't help rolling her eyes at this sentiment. Had she ever been so naive?

***

"Delivery for Officer Bethany Blaine!"

Clawhauser nearly jumped out of his seat, so surprised he was by the sudden, chipper shout after focusing so long on the radio setup in front of him. Looking up, he blinked at the sight of a brightly grinning moose in a forest-green track suit, his antlers adorned with a number of gaudy rings and bracelets. He hopped from hoof to hoof as if in a hurry, jostling the cardboard box held in his arms.

"Uh..." Clawhauser wracked his brain for the procedure for this kind of situation, but all that came to mind was butterscotch donuts. "I'm... sorry, Officer Blaine isn't available right now. And er, sorry, we’re all on edge after the last week, so I don’t think I can allow in any unmarked boxes…”

The moose blinked, stopping his little dancing in place. “What—oh! Sorry!” He turned the box around so that Clawhauser could see the other side, which read “Grey’s Baked Deliveries!” in bold lettering over a drawing of a steaming-fresh pie. “Gosh, that must have looked awful from where you’re sitting!”

Clawhauser, who had relaxed at once upon seeing the familiar logo from his favorite Bunnyburrow bakery, laughed and gave a wave of his hand. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ve made that mistake plenty of times. Now, like I said before, Officer Blaine’s not here, but I’ll be happy to take that to our break room fridge for her for later. May I ask who it’s from?”

The moose gave a relieved sigh and set the box down on Clawhauser’s desk. “Gosh these pies can get heavy after a while. And some mammal Blaine saved from the Aquarium, I figure.” Still smiling, the moose started walking backwards toward the main ZPD entrance, giving a little wave as he went. “Just let her know… Mr. Green sends his regards.”

***

“I would also,” continued Gazelle, nodding in turn to Chief Bogo, Fangmeyer, Judy, and Beth, “like to give my thanks to the brave members of the ZPD who are with us today, ensuring our safety.”

Murmurs ran through the crowd. Judy ignored the fresh wave of looks sent her way and tried to focus on Gazelle, but a nearly-imperceptible, sickly groaning kept catching her ears. The polar bear by now looked like he’d eaten something rotten.

Gazelle’s voice cut through the murmuring, almost demanding their full attention with its softness, its gentleness. “The last week has been trying for all of us. I don’t think there is a single mammal in this room who has not felt the pain of Jack Savage’s brutal attacks in some way. Yet in our hurt, our sadness, and our anger from these atrocities, I hope, I sincerely hope, that we do not lose our faith in our system and our way of life. Not in that they are perfect, but that they can be fixed and made better when they fail us. That they are worth standing strong and united for.”

Light applause greeted this sentiment, Judy joining in. Picking up her champagne glass from the table once more, the antelope held it high and looked at each mammal in the room around her. “I ask now that we all have a moment of silence for those taken from us, and dedicate ourselves to ensuring that they will not have died in vain.”

Throughout the room, glasses were raised and silence fell. Having no glass, Judy closed her eyes and lowered her head, giving a silent prayer to the departed, and a promise that she would see justice done for them.

The room-wide silence was swiftly broken by a wet, agonized retching.

***

Clawhauser made it as far as the breakroom doors before the temptation to peak at whatever sugary delights had been sent Beth’s way. Hurrying through the doors and to the nearest table, Clawhauser’s mouth watered in anticipation of blackberry pies, of triple chocolate cakes, of rows and rows of donuts laden with extra sprinkles. His claws trembled as he had the thought of sneaking one, just one, tiny bite off an éclair, making cutting through the tape sealing the top flaps difficult.

The neatly-stacked sticks of explosives, enough perhaps to turn that whole building floor to rubble, killed Clawhauser’s appetite. “Oh… oh hairballs.”

***

Judy ran to the source of the retching as fast as her legs could carry her, beating Beth and Fangmeyer there just as the polar bear let out another wail of agony. He had pushed his chair back from the table and was bent over nearly double, frothing and hacking as his claws gripped at his oversized gut. “Sir?” She gripped his suit jacket at the elbow, placing her other hand near her tranq gun in case this turned violent. “Sir, can you hear m—”

The polar bear jerked forward, a burst of blood and half-chewed appetizers splattering the table in front of him. Shrieks rang out as the other mammals at the table jumped back in shock, while others that had come over to gawk quickly returned to their original places.

Covering her nose against the stench, Judy shared a look with Beth as the polar bear resumed groaning and shuddering in his seat, then looked to Bogo, who had gone to stand beside a wide-eyed and pale Gazelle. The cape buffalo frowned and jerked his head toward the closest set of doors, to which Judy nodded and reached for her radio. “Dispatch, we’re going to need an ambulance over here stat. Dispatch, you copy?”

“Okay, big guy,” said Fangmeyer, the tigress coming up and placing a hand on the polar bear’s shoulder. “Come on, we’ll get you to a hospital and—”

Another retch, all blood this time as the polar bear jerked to his feet, panting and scrabbling at his belly with his claw. “N-no… he sa-said he’d c-climb ou… ouaaAAAUUGH!”

Judy had a moment to grasp this last, terrible statement before the polar bear threw his head back and screamed, belly bulging outward grotesquely. There was a sound, like the kind of miniature chainsaws Judy remembered her father using to cut down a tree for Christmas every year, and then the polar bear’s whole front half ruptured, showering Fangmeyer and Judy in blood and entrails. Then more screaming from all around them, drowning out the thud of the polar bear’s body hitting the floor, the band’s music stopping abruptly as a stampede began for the doors only to find them, against ZPD orders and by unknown means, locked.

“Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!” stammered Fangmeyer, staring down at her blood-soaked uniform, eyes wide, breath shallow, shoulders shaking, on the verge of hyperventilating. Judy barely heard this. Barely heard Beth losing her dinner as the hare staggered backwards in the vague direction of their VIP. Barely heard Bogo’s shouting into his radio as he moved in front of a shell-shocked Gazelle, a flurry of panicking voices from other officers across the university answering him.

All that registered to Judy was the sticky warmth of the blood clotting in her fur, and the rabbit in a grey full-body diving suit pulling himself out of the polar bear’s ruptured belly. As the rabbit balanced itself on the corpse’s chest and wiped away steaming entrails as if they were no more than a sprinkling of dust or snow, the eyes of every mammal trapped in the room slowly turned to look at it. They watched in mounting horror as it spat out its pocket rebreather, threw off its goggles, and ripped off its mask, allowing Jack Savage to cast a long, measuring look around the room and its terrified occupants.

“Hmm… looks like I should have taken a left turn at Albearquerque.”

Someone, somewhere in the crowd of onlookers let out a strangled little laugh that quickly died out in the otherwise sickened atmosphere. A silent moment passed as all parties looked at each other, before nearly as one Judy, Beth, Bogo, and Fangmeyer drew their service pistols.

Savage was faster, holding up what could only be a remote detonator and moving his thumb over the red button before Judy could even begin to level her gun on him. “Ah ah ah, let’s not be so trigger-happy, hm? Unless one of you wants to be responsible for the ZPD blowing sky-high, of course.”

Judy barely pulled back from squeezing her trigger by muscle memory, seeing from the corner of her eye Beth and Fangmeyer grimace as they too came within a mere twitch’s distance from destroying the ZPD. Bogo stood firm as ever, the only signs that Savage’s words got to him being a tightening in his eyes and the barely-perceptible lowering of his pistol. "You bloody maniac. What are you playing at, Savage? You can't think we'll buy that you got explosives into the ZPD? On nothing but your word?"

"You're right, that'd be ridiculous." Savage let out a dry chuckle as he mimed grabbing a radio. "I'm sure you'd buy that on, oh... Clawhauser's word though."

A silent moment of terror, before Bogo reached for his earpiece. "Dispatch, this is Bogo, come in." Another second, Judy's grip on her pistol tightening as a dozen nightmare scenarios danced through her head. "Dispatch, come in. Clawhauser?"

"Chief!" Judy almost let herself visibly sag with relief at the cheetah's voice. That relief vanished at his next few words. "Chief, don't panic, but there is a bomb in the ZPD!"

Bogo slumped where he stood. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

***

Clawhauser jumped as the breakroom doors flew open, a hand going to his chest as Wolford stormed through them. "Jeez! You almost gave me a heart attack, Wolford!"

"Oh well sorry, lad," snapped the wolf as he brushed past Clawhauser to the table where the bomb sat. "Heaven forbid that happen after MY heart attack when the chief radios me and says, hey fyi, there's a BOMB IN THE BUILDING!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Clawhauser joined Wolford at the table, wringing his hands as the wolf carefully opened the box to look inside. "Is there anything you can do? Can you disconnect the right wire or, or something?"

Wolford didn't answer right away, taking his time to fully examine the bomb. "It's crude... primitive... purposely so. Just the explosives, the primer, this here radio receiver for what I'm guessing's a remote detonator... way more wires here than needed, good smokescreen..." He sniffed, sniffed deeper, took a deep, full-throated sniff, almost sneezing afterward. "Well scat. This thing going off would make the Sahara Square bombing look like a firecracker."

Clawhauser swallowed. "Hairballs."

***

“What do you want, Savage?” Judy edged around, subtly moving herself between the blood-soaked rabbit and Gazelle. She had the most experience with the madman, for good or ill, and Bogo and the others seemed willing for the moment to let her take the lead on this. Her movement also helped to distract from Beth’s gradual circling around to behind Savage. “So you got past us in the most disgusting way possible, but what now? We’re not just going to hand Gazelle over to you, and surely you don’t expect to just walk out of here.”

He ignored her at first, to her annoyance, keeping the detonator raised and in plain sight as he reached back down into the polar bear corpse to bring out an old-fashioned razor. He twirled it once, then smiled at her. “How’re those cuts from our last little chat feeling, Judy? Still hurting, or are they healing up nicely? And tell me, have you noticed any hearing loss ever since the damage to your ear there? I hope not. Hearing is a rabbit’s most important asset. After all, it—” He spun then, a clean 360 degree turn, swiping his razor at Beth’s face just as she came close enough to grab at the detonator. She screamed and staggered back, blood dribbling out from around the hand clapped over her mouth. “—always warns us of danger. Oh so sorry, little… sisss.” A gasp rose from the crowd. Savage glanced past Judy at Bogo, grinning as the cape buffalo fumed. “You really should take better care of your officers, chief. They’re practically falling to pieces all around us!”

Bogo growled, sending many of the civilian onlookers flinching back. Judy watched Beth fight through the pain of her slashed-open mouth to level her gun on Savage once more, eyes lit up by both physical pain and emotional hurt. Judy swallowed and steeled her nerves for whatever came next. “Jack, don’t ignore the question. What do you want?”

He made a show of thinking it over before shrugging. “My face on the dollar bill?”

Judy took a deep breath, working to remain calm. “Jack, no. That’s a line from Flying Fox. That’s Nick’s favorite movie, I’ve had to watch it enough to know every line. What do you WANT, Jack?”

Savage’s smile dropped for the briefest moment, before returning full-force as he turned to take in the room. He held his arms out wide, as if the magician on stage they his rapt audience. “Welcome, all of you! The name is Jack Savage, remember it. Now that all the preamble and opening acts to get you pumped have done their jump, welcome to the main event!”

He pointed at Judy, smile turning cruel. “Welcome to the night the ZPD destroy Zootopia!”

***

“Ben, quick, help me get this thing over onto that utility cart there.”

Clawhauser did as asked, taking one side of the box containing the bomb while Wolford took the other. On the count of three they lifted it and, with the utmost care now that they knew they were handling explosives, walked over to the cart sitting near to the breakroom fridge and set the box down on it.

Once this was done Clawhauser backed away immediately and wiped his brow, the stress of the situation getting to him more than any of the physical labor. “Okay, what now? We going to take it down to the garage? Try to drive it somewhere safe? To meet one of the SWAT teams to disarm it?”

Wolford shook his head as he grabbed the cart’s handles, pushing it out the breakroom doors and down the hall to the elevators. Clawhauser followed close behind. “They’re all the way in Tundratown, and there’s no telling when this will go off. I don’t want to be on the highway with a bomb this big. Better the ZPD get turned to rubble than a bridge.”

Clawhauser nodded. He didn’t want to die, the thought terrified him, but he was still a ZPD officer. Safety of civilians first. “Okay, then where are we going?”

“The ZPD Labs, one of the private examination rooms. The lead lining down there will interfere with radio waves and might, MIGHT keep this thing from blowing.”

The elevator doors opened several paces ahead of them, Bertrand making his nightly stroll to the breakroom for coffee. He stopped, gaping as they wheeled the cart and its deadly cargo past him. Wolford moved to hit the button for the labs, before pausing and looking at the bear. “Bert, handsome, unless you know how to disarm a radio-activated bomb, I’d suggest you call it an early night.”

“Uh…”

“Right.” Wolford hit the button, then as the doors slid shut, “Might have to cancel Saturday!”

***

One of the doors to the banquet hall shuddered, then shattered, sending the mammals closest to it scurrying. Officer Francine charged in with service pistol drawn, followed by Adam Fangmeyer, Naylor, McHorn, and to Judy's mixed relief and worry, Nick.

As half the civilians present ran for it now that an exit had been given them, Savage held the detonator higher for all remaining to see. "Welcome, officers! It's great to have you here! You will make all of this so much easier!"

"What do you mean?" said Judy, glancing appreciatively Nick's way as he sidled up next to her. Alongside Bogo and the Fangmeyers, they had a solid wall of blue between Savage and Gazelle. "What do you mean we're going to destroy Zootopia?"

Savage paused before answering, turning to smile at a koala recording the scene with a phone. He lifted the hand holding the razor up, hovering the hand holding the detonator over the strap-on timer hanging from his wrist. "I shall activate this detonator in--" CLICK. "--60 seconds, blowing the Zootopia Police Department to smithereens and killing every cop, criminal, and civilian still inside... UNLESS someone in this room, probably a cop since they have guns, shoots and KILLS mayoral candidate Gazelle! Oh, and you only have 50 seconds now."

Silence followed this declaration, silence and horror. Judy looked at Nick and found his eyes wide, his gun shaking ever so slightly in his grip. The picture of how she felt.

"You can't be serious," said Bogo, voice shakier to Judy's ears than she'd ever heard it. "What in God's name are you trying to prove here!?"

"Nothing," said Savage, every trace of his smile gone now. "There doesn’t need to be some greater goal or ulterior motive. If, in pursuit of eternal infamy, I show these people that you're willing to kill any of them to protect your own, that there are FAR better law enforcement options than a stumbling bunch of killers and con artists, well, that's your business. 40 seconds."

“Sir?” Francine looked between Savage and Bogo, voice wavering. “We can’t just… Clawhauser’s still at the ZPD… Wolford…”

“I know, I know!” The cape buffalo took a step forward, prompting Savage to step back. “We could rush you right now. Or down you in a hail of bullets. There’s no leaving this room free, Savage.”

“I know. I don’t care. 25 seconds.”

Judy swallowed, heart dropping as she noted McHorn and Fangmeyer regarding Gazelle with narrowed eyes and twitchy revolvers. Beth’s focus on her was laser-like, slashed mouth seemingly forgotten as she half-turned her pistol in Gazelle’s direction. The antelope, for her part, stood remarkably tall for someone surrounded by people a maniac had designated as her executioners, though Judy still saw a powerful fear in her eyes, the kind she’d seen drive mammals caught in a burning building to leap out windows, even from floors too high to survive. And yet, even then…

“I don’t want Zootopia to tear itself apart over me, and I refuse to give a mammal like you the satisfaction of driving good cops to murder. You’ll never have the infamy you crave.”

Murmurs sprang up among the crowd of onlookers at this, while Savage frowned. “15 seconds.”

“Sthir…” Beth started to raise her gun at Gazelle, until Bogo sent her cowering back with a glare. What only Judy and Nick beside her noticed was Gazelle reaching into a pocket of her suit.

“Miss Gazelle, please—”

“We can’t just stand here and let him—”

“Swore oaths—”

“Clawhauser!” Bogo’s voice was hoarse as he shouted into his radio. “Clawhauser, get out of the building now! Ben!”

“10 seconds… 9… 8… 7—”

The antelope drew a snub-nosed revolver from her pocket. Judy gasped, lowering her pistol at once and stepping toward her, one hand raised as if to grab the weapon, though they stood several feet away. “Miss Gazelle, no!”

The shout drew everyone’s attention, gasps echoing among both cops and civilians. Even Savage seemed caught off-guard. Off-guard and furious “What are you—”

“You only said that someone in the room had to shoot me,” said Gazelle. She trembled even as she cocked the revolver. “It doesn’t have to be a cop. I won’t let the ZPD be villainized or Zootopia give up the rule of law. Not in my name. Zootopia can stand without me. It can’t stand without the ZPD.”

Shaking with rage, Savage growled his next few words out. “4… 3… 2—”

Judy, alongside Nick, the Fangmeyers, and Bog, lunged for Gazelle. Yet as fast as Judy was, even she could only watch as the idol defiantly brought the gun to her temple, eyes locked with Jack Savage’s.

BANG.


	15. Chapter 15

BANG.

Screaming started throughout the room, abruptly cutting off as an unexpected scene played out before them. Judy gaped at Gazelle, the antelope wearing a similar expression as she lowered the gun from her head, looked down at it, and then looked up and past the half-dozen cops surrounding her in various states of panic. Judy followed her gaze to find Jack Savage collapsed face down on the floor, a red stain spreading around him, a gaping bullet hole in his back. Behind him stood Beth, service pistol still smoking. Judy thought she looked the most surprised of all.

"Ev... everyone wash sho dishtracted by Gazhelle," the hare eventually managed to say as she lowered her pistol. "It jusht sh-sheemed... the besht chanche..."

Even as she spoke Nick hurried forward, kneeling at the downed rabbit's side and with a pickpocket's care prying the remote detonator from his grasp. Judy joined her fox as He flipped the cap back over the small red button so that it couldn't be accidentally pressed, taking it from him to seal it away in an evidence bag. Then he looked up at her, a question on his lips. She shook her head, finally feeling like she could smile. "I don't hear a heartbeat or a pulse. Jack Savage is dead."

The whole room let out a collective sigh of relief, some people hugging the closest mammal, others cheering, still others grabbing their phones to call friends, loved ones, the news media. As this went on Bogo began barking out orders, both in-person and over the radio. "Fangmeyers, get these civilians out of here and somewhere safe, start taking accounts if you can. Grizzoli, get a SWAT team down to the ZPD at once! McHorn, I want ambulances here 5 minutes ago! We've got hurt officers here! Wilde, get that body covered up! Hopps, see to Blaine!"

Judy was already moving when she got the command, alarmed at a sudden stagger from Beth. She circled around Savage on the floor and reached the hare's side just in time to keep her from collapsing. "Woah there, it's alright, good work, Officer Blaine. Let's get you sitting down, yeah?"

Beth mumbled something, words slurring as she struggled to get her pistol back in its holster. Judy carefully took the weapon from her and guided her over to a chair. Once there she set the gun down, grabbed her personal first aid kit from her belt, and began digging through for cotton swabs and bandages for the slashed face. Her ears twitched at the sound of Bogo's voice, gentle now that the crisis was seemingly over, speaking comfort and calm to a softly crying Gazelle.

"It's over... you're safe now... I promise, everything is fine..."

"Think... prefer... shouting," managed Beth through a mouthful of blood. "More truthful..."

Judy looked up at her, surprised by the moment of humor, before smiling and setting to work applying cotton to stop up the bleeding. "He might be right this time though." She looked over to Nick, catching his eye as he draped a tablecloth over Savage's body. "It might be fine."

***

"Breaking news coming from mayoral candidate Gazelle's charity rally tonight. Eyewitness reports are flooding in, all of them telling the same basic story: Jack Savage, rabbit menace who has held Zootopia in terror for the better part of a week now, has been shot dead."

"Viewers will remember yesterday's sudden broadcast, where Savage publicly announced his intentions to infiltrate Gazelle's rally and kill her. The increased police presence at the rally resulting from this led directly to the terrorist's death.

"Neither the ZPD nor Gazelle's campaign have released official statements, and rumors of a bomb threat against the ZPD remain uncorroborated. Nevertheless, we at ZNN, as well as all of Zootopia, can sleep easier knowing the nightmare is over."

***

Once they had all the civilians checked up and cleared away, the scene of the encounter secured for CSI to go over, and Beth driven to the hospital, all that remained to do for that night was to return to the ZPD. Five minutes as the SWAT demolitions expert made sure the bomb was safely disassembled, another ten spent commiserating with Clawhauser, and then as long and hot a trip to the station showers as Judy dared. The water at full blast and turned hot enough to make Tundratown sweat, she let the sweat and blood wash away and tried her hardest not to think anything at all.

Not yet having her own locker back yet, Judy had to make do with spare sweats from Beth's locker as she rejoined Nick in their old office. There wasn't as much paperwork as Judy feared there would be, but more than she would have liked all the same. She kept her recounting of the day's events and her thoughts and actions terse and concise, the whole process passing like a blur after the adrenaline rush that had been basically the entire week up to that point.

"Judy?"

"Yes, Nick?"

"I'm not quitting, but once this is all squared away, let's take a nice, long vacation."

Judy groaned her agreement and returned to detailing her argument with Duke Weaselton.

A vacation sounded nice. Probably not a long one, only a week, two weeks. They'd only just got started back on the job, and Judy didn't want to give the impression (or offer the temptation) of quitting again already. And they would spend the vacation in Zootopia, seeing the sights and enjoying the activities they never had the time for as police officers. They would use the time to find more permanent accommodations than Marian Wilde's home, as lovely as it was. She'd heard there were some lovely new housing developments in the Nocturnal District.

Judy didn't notice Nick calling Finnick, but they found the fennec fox waiting outside the ZPD in his familiar van all the same. She said nothing, but Judy was thankful all the same. She really didn't feel like driving or taking public transportation right then.

Thankfully, Finnick waited until they'd clambered into the passenger seat and the van was on its way before grumbling. "I oughta start my own limo service, the way I'm always picking you two up." He glanced at them and huffed. "You look like you've seen hell, Cottontail."

Judy thought back to the polar bear getting torn open from the inside, to Savage's leering, blood-soaked face, and shuddered. She welcomed Nick's arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. "Maybe I have."

They stopped at a red light and Finnick glanced over, concerned eyes putting lie to his frown. "Is uh, is the news right 'bout Savage? That loon dead?"

"Saw it with my own eyes, bud," said Nick, running a hand up and down Judy's upper arm. "Dead as disco."

Finnick's grin was all teeth. "Good."

The light turned green and they drove on. Judy rested her head against Nick's chest, letting the two foxes catch up on mundanities as she listened to his heartbeat. She remembered the comfortable rhythm from days off from work, basking together on the Sahara Square beach. From late-night movie marathons. From their beautiful night together after the wedding, when the only other sounds to be heard were the rustle of sheets and each other's names, whispered breathless in the dark. Judy listened to the sound, basked in it.

At some unspoken bidding Finnick took them through Bugburga, where they got half a dozen bug burgers, two tomato lettuce wraps, and three mango smoothies. Suddenly feeling famished, Judy dove into her meal with all the voraciousness of the legendary Bigwig himself.

"You know," said Nick between bites of burger, "we should get together this weekend. Our first weekend back. Go out to a pub or somewhere, like the good old days."

"Right, tellin' you right now, I ain't driving all you guys around."

"I like that idea." Judy slurped from her smoothie, spilling a touch on her sweatshirt. "Lots of people to reconnect with. There's the Ottertons. Mr. Manchas, uh... I..." She grimaced, setting her drink down to tap her claws against her leg. She felt Nick's frown on her. "Fru Fru..."

"Bucky and Pronk." Nick suddenly took her hand in his, his prosthetic hand, pulling it into his lap and squeezing. "I think I owe one of them money for going with Wilde-Hopps instead of Hopps-Wilde."

Judy laughed, finding herself coming dangerously close to crying as she buried her face against Nick's chest. "You... you dork."

***

"Yes, I am completely relieved to hear that Jack Savage's attempt on Gazelle's life failed and he's dead. And no, it has nothing to do with possibly being a future target of his. Zootopia is a place of law, justice, and order, and it must be so in every facet of life. I of course want to remain mayor, but never at the cost of my political rival. I am relieved to hear that Gazelle is unharmed and I wish her the best of luck in the coming weeks."

***

“And in other news, HiteTech President Winona Hite of San Dingo announced this morning the passing of Captain Bellatrix Lacross, leader of the private law enforcement initiative H.A.W.C. The timber wolf had allegedly been in Zootopia on vacation and was caught in Jack Savage’s Sahara Square attack. However, an anonymous source close to Hite has gone on record with ZNN that Lacross had been under suspicion for several months for misuse of—”

***

"I have called this morning press conference for the purpose of dispelling some of the wilder rumors running rampant through Zootopia, as well as provide the official ZPD account of what happened last night.

"First off, it was in no way a trap for Jack Savage, and Gazelle continued with the planned event of her own volition, and in fact against my own suggestion. Clearly though, it has turned out for the best.

"Savage's method of infiltrating the event was monstrous and sickening, and I decline from speaking it aloud where innocent ears might hear. Those with a strong stomach can find it out in their own time. What I will say is that Savage's entire plan was to turn the ZPD and the greater city of Zootopia against each other. His method: threatening to blow up ZPD headquarters unless one of us shot Gazelle ourselves. Thanks to Miss Gazelle's bravery and the quick thinking of Officer Bethany Blaine, who is currently recovering from injuries received in the line of duty, this nefarious plot was foiled and Savage taken down.

“There is one point that I wish to make perfectly clear. While Jack Savage and Miss Black, the seeming ringleaders of the recent attacks, have both been put down, their connections with the local criminal element remain. The main danger has passed, but we must all remain vigilant for the time being, until the last of these collaborators have been apprehended, a task our detectives are already well on their way to accomplishing.

“I recognize that, in recent years, the ZPD has lost the trust of much of Zootopia, and I will not say there hasn’t been good reason for this. There has been controversy, murder, conspiracy, abusive interrogation tactics, questionable personal connections, and worse. I deny none of this.

“However, as Senior Chief of Police, today I am publicly reaffirming ZPD dedication to the public safety. I humbly hope that our weathering this crisis together can be the first step to returning this police department to where it should be. To returning to Zootopia the police force it and its people deserve.

“Any questions?”

***

When Judy walked into Beth's hospital room, the multitude of flowers and fruit baskets set around the place made her think for a moment that the Rainforest District had moved in. Even better, bringing a grin to Judy's face, Beth's bed could hardly be seen beneath the Get Well Soon cards the hare and Honey Badger were currently busy looking through. "Well, someone's pretty popular now."

Beth looked up, a smile brightening her stitched-up face for a moment before she winced and clapped a hand over her mouth. "Ow..."

Honey sighed beside Beth. "You do that one more time and I'm taking these cards away until those stitches are out."

Judy chuckled at the hare's resultant pout and moved a basket out of the bedside chair to sit herself and her bag down there, offering Beth a sympathetic smile. "It will be better before you know it." She motioned with a hand to the scars across her face. "Trust me, I know."

Beth's gaze softened at that, followed by a resigned sigh. Judy turned to Honey. "What do the doctors say? Will there be any serious scarring?"

"Well she won't be looking like the Joker, if that's what you're worried about," said Honey, setting the card she held down to draw Beth into a hug. "Will probably have a wicked mean glower when all is said and done though, heh."

Judy eyed the half-inch slashes extending from the left and right of Beth's mouth and sighed, reaching out to place a comforting hand on her forearm. "We sure don't get into this job for our looks, do we?"

Beth chuckled, a low and throaty noise, weak as she pulled her arm away from Judy’s touch. She tried to be discreet about it, but Judy had plenty of years of reading suspects and siblings to know when someone wasn’t acting the way she hoped. “Beth?”

“I’m shorry, I…”

The hare turned to look at Honey. The badger rolled her eyes and sighed, reaching out to take Beth’s hand in hers. “It’s okay, I promise, everything will be fine…” To Judy she said “she’s just worried that you’ll think less of her for her brother. Something I keep trying to tell her is ridiculous, but… you know how it goes…”

“Yeah, I know,” said Judy, looking at her fellow officer with newfound understanding. She didn’t like having to understand this rotten little happenstance, but she did. “Beth, listen. I would never hold anything about Jack Savage against you. The same way I don’t think less of every sheep for what Bellwether did, or every lion for what Lionheart did. He chose to do everything he did, but you DIDN’T choose your last name… okay?”

“Didn’t chooshe…” The hare sniffled, blinking and reaching up to scrub away at the tears suddenly threatening to fall. She wasn’t making much progress, as far as Judy saw. “I… I grew up hearing shtories of... misshing shiblingsh… knowing their namesh… making cop, I thought maybe, maybe I… I could make it... never happen again…”

“And when I recounted the story Savage told me, that’s when you realized who he was?”

Beth was slow to answer between the soft sobs now wracking her body, giving a short nod before turning and burying her muzzle against Honey’s shoulder. The badger immediately pulled her in close, stroking the hare’s ears back and whispering sweetness to her. Judy sat apart, making no noise or movement for fear of interrupting the much-needed moment of tenderness. She understood when tears needed shedding, and there wasn’t too much of a rush.

But eventually, many minutes later, the tears did stop. Beth sniffled again, rubbing her eyes before looking at Judy. “What brings… you… here?” Her eyes flickered to the bag next to Judy. “Not jusht… shochial… call.”

Judy gave a tight smile. She sorta wished the quiet could have lasted a little longer. But the worries had been bothering her all night and early morning, and there were few better she felt she could discuss this with. “It’s… probably nothing. I hope, at least, it’s nothing. Jack Savage is dead, we and countless others saw it. And yet…”

“Too shimple,” whispered Beth. Her grip tightened on the bedsheets over her lap. “Looshe endsh…”

Judy nodded. “Too many. Like, everything Savage did, I just feel, did he really need to approach the crime lords? And what about those shipments Wolford discovered to City Hall? HiteTech Construction? Outback Island?”

“Right?” Honey took on a rather manic grin as she looked over at Judy. The rabbit, upon glancing Beth’s exasperated features, realized she was about to get a taste of the honey badger’s conspiracy theory fervor. “And what was up with Miss Black in all that? Who was she? Where’d she come from? What was she planning to get out of all this? And why call her ‘Miss Black’ anyway? It’s obviously an alias, but she was all white, so you’d think they’d call her Miss White, right?”

“Yeah, I… I…” Judy frowned, gaze turning down as what felt like a long-forgotten puzzle piece was suddenly remembered. “Miss White… Miss White…”

_Cloudy_86: Ugh, that naturalist club. Why him?_

_The tablet next to Judy beeped, indicating the download had finished. She glanced to the windows and hurriedly ducked down as Higgins walked past, coming back up to type a response._

_Trekker69: He was involved in Hopps’ search for the missing mammals all those years ago. No better reason._

_Cloudy_86: Understood. Hail Miss White._

_Caught off guard by this, Judy took a moment to respond._

_Trekker69: Hail Miss White._

“Judy? You okay there?”

Judy blinked, looking from Honey to Beth and back, suddenly unsure of where to start, suddenly terrified of losing this thread of a mystery without unraveling it. “During… during the Wendigo Killings last year, when Nick and I were investigating, I found Delgato and the copycat Wendigo Killer, Taylor Monahan, make a reference to a Miss White. And when he had me captured and was telling me about his childhood trauma on Outback Island, Savage mentioned a tiger and a spotted leopard with half a mutilated face as among the few survivors…”

Beth nodded. “Delgato and Monahan.”

“And then,” continued Judy, standing up because sitting down at a moment like this was beyond her, “Clawhauser said the moose who delivered the bomb last night said… what was it… said that they were ‘courtesy of Mr. Green,’ or something like that.”

“Miss White… Miss Black… Mr. Green…” Honey turned to look at Beth. “I know you know I can get a little… overzealous in my pursuit of conspiracies, buuut… three people using colors as aliases in two different city-threatening events is a bit much for a coincidence.”

The three looked at each other, unsure of what it was they were stumbling into. Judy gulped, glancing toward the door behind her before pulling her bag onto her lap and unzipping it. She drew out a slim white laptop, which she offered out to Honey. “This is one of the computers taken from Savage’s room at Cliffside Asylum. Our computer labs couldn’t crack it, so I thought that… well, Nick’s spoken quite highly of your skills here.”

Honey blushed as Beth let out the tiniest of chuckles. Now grinning, the badger cracked her knuckles before swinging the laptop open. “Finally, the chance to use my conspiratorial tendencies for good instead of evil.”

***

“What do you mean it wasn’t a mortal wound!?”

"I mean what I said, you intolerable reynard."

Nick growled, looking between the ZPD's senior medical examiner, a jackal with an ego the size of an elephant, and the naked rabbit laid out on the examination table. A thin sheet was all that protected Nick from having Jack Savage's junk seared into his retinas. "But... he's dead! I saw it happen right in front of me, and now I'm looking right at his corpse!"

"For all that you can call that thing there a corpse," mumbled the jackal.

Before Nick could express just what he thought of that infuriating bit of vagueness, Wolford stepped over from where he'd been fiddling with the lab's scan projector and placed a hand on Nick's shoulder. "Woah there, lad, no need to be baring fangs. We're all civilized canines here. What Beltz is trying to say is that the gunshot that downed Savage wasn't an immediately fatal one."

Nick frowned at that. "Okay... why?"

Wolford looked at Beltz. The jackal sighed and leaned over to press a few buttons on the projector. A second passed before a multicolored hologram of Jack Savage sans skin flickered into existence above the real rabbit. Nick immediately blanched at the sight. "Uh... does Judy look like that on the inside?"

"Not unless her mom's actually a microwave," said Beltz, tone flat despite the joke. He picked up a scalpel and began gesturing to points of interest. "As you can see here, both arms at the shoulders and the left leg from the knee down have been replaced, and by some damn fine hardware too. I read an article about a senator's son who was in a car wreck and got fixed up something like this. Must've cost a fortune."

"The guy was kitnapped and thrown into the wild as a kid," said Nick, scratching his chin. "Hunted for days, had to set everything on fire to escape. Not surprised he wasn't in one piece after that."

"That would explain the throat and lungs," said the jackal, gesturing to the mentioned areas. "Lots of old scarring from smoke inhalation there. What's important for the moment though is that blurry square there, next to the heart. Have you looked over any of the evidence taken from Cliffside Asylum, Detective Wilde?"

Nick shrugged. Some of it. We were a little busy hunting down Savage and readying for Gazelle's big shindig. What's all this have to do with him not getting mortally shot?"

"It's a heart restarter," said Wolford, taking over. "We found notes on it in Savage's things. Something like the next step in pacer technology, meant for soldiers on the frontline. Jumpstarts the heart if it ever stops, gives a few more minutes for help to arrive."

"Only it didn't here..." Nick circled around to the other side of the table to see the holographic gunshot wound. Looking between it and the heart restarter, he almost laughed. "Beth's bullet dented it? Made it shoot off early, make his heart stop instead of start? That's why he dropped immediately instead of just fall and bleed out?" At their nods he chuckled and shook his head. "Oh man, that is both hilarious and something we can never, ever tell Beth. I just couldn't do that to her poor hare--"

Bzzz-bzzz-bzzz.

"Dang it, Wilde!" Beltz slammed his fist down on the projector, shutting off the hologram. "NO CALLS IN THE LAB!"

"Right, right, because I can control when other people call or text me." Rolling his eyes, Nick fished his phone out of his pocket and turned the screen on. "It's a text from Beth? Or no, just Judy borrowing her phone. Looks like she… wants to talk to Koslov? Hm."

Putting his phone away, he looked between his fellow canines with one raised brow. "Well this has been a ball. Unless either of you had anything else...?"

"Nah," said Wolford as he headed for the door. "I'll get back to that other laptop of his. The chief wants everything catalogued and written up tonight. I think we'll all be sleeping better once this is all behind us."

"I hear that. Beltz?"

The jackal bared a fang and turned away, grabbing the tools to patch up  the late Jack Savage's injuries. "I'll tell you if he gets up off that table."


	16. Chapter 16

“Carrots. Caaarrooooootssss. Fluff? Uh, Judy?”

At the sound of her name Judy blinked, turning from the one-way mirror to Nick beside her. “Hm? I’m sorry Nick, did you say something?”

Nick rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Just trying to get your attention for the last five minutes, Judes. You sure you’re okay, Fluff? Savage and Black are taken care of, I’m sure old Buffalo Butt wouldn’t mind too much if we traded for something less strenuous.”

Judy shook her head, before glancing down at the folder of photos and files she’d printed off from Jack Savage’s laptop in a rush. "No, I…” She looked back up at the mirror, watching the polar bear in the garish orange jumpsuit drum his claws against the interrogation table. “I’m fine. Just… nervous.”

She felt Nick’s gaze flick down to the folder for the briefest moment. “You found some bad stuff in that computer, Carrots. Will be good to hit Koslov hard for all we can squeeze out of him. Nothing more deserved.”

She shook her head again. “Not bad, just… conflicting. Think we’ve let him sweat it out in there enough?”

To her relief the fox accepted her change of topic, turning his own gaze back to the mirror. “Sure, I think we’ve managed to move him JUST past ‘cool as a cucumber’. I’d say it’s time to roll. Hey, why is it ‘cool as a cucumber’ anyway? I have never for the life of me understood what made cucumbers so special on the hot to cold spectrum.”

Judy rolled her eyes and chuckled, heading for the door to the interrogation room. “I guess cucumber just rolls off the tongue the best. Carrots aren’t all that cool, anyway.”

“Some are.”

“Dork. Come on.”

Koslov looked up as the door opened, features settling into a mask of cool indifference as Judy and Nick took their seats across from him. “Ah, Officers Wilde-Hopps. I was wondering when we would talk. I heard from your Officer Clawhauser that my request to only be charged for crimes unrelated to Jack Savage was accepted, so… I am uncertain what there remains to discuss.”

Judy set the folder down on the table, hiding her smile as Koslov glanced at it, instead ignoring it for the moment and resting her chin on her hands. “You were very quick to make that request, I’ve heard. Strange, how you’ve refused the services of a lawyer. You don’t like Jack Savage all that much, do you?”

“Well who would,” added Nick, propping his head up on his palm as he turned a conversational gaze Judy’s way. “I mean stellar taste in suits aside, he was a complete maniac! And you know, having personally met Dawn Bellwether, I think of myself as somewhat of an authority on complete maniacs. I don’t know, what do you think, Koslov?”

“I don’t think it matters one way or the other,” said the polar bear. “Savage is dead.”

“That is true, but…” Judy reached down for the folder, pulling her hand back at seeing Koslov shift the slightest bit in his seat and instead folding both hands in her lap. “He did also leave quite a large number of dead bodies in his wake. Have you heard how he managed to infiltrate mayoral candidate Gazelle’s charity rally, Mr. Koslov?”

The polar bear raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Judy shrugged. “He had a polar bear, I’m guessing one of your former guys, eat him whole while he wore a diving suit and rebreather. Now, I’m guessing, from the polar bear’s final, agonized words, that Savage promised to simply crawl out the way he went in. But no… he tore his way straight out of the bear’s stomach. With a chainsaw. I’d wager they’re still busy trying to get the stains out of the carpet.”

They had watched Koslov grow more agitated as Judy went on. At this last comment he loosed a growly groan, handcuffs clinking as he buried his muzzle into his hands. “Petrov… stupid, stupid Petrov… STUPID!”

Judy barely kept herself from jumping as Koslov slammed his fists into the table, reaching one hand out to keep Nick from grabbing his stun gun and instead letting the polar bear rage. “I always warned them not to trust Savage to any degree! Zhal', chto ya mog by nanizany yego sam! Eto gryaznoye , gniloye , chert krolika ! Nenavistnyy Bugimen!”

Nick whistled. “Woof. Strong language, bud.”

"I'm glad to see there's no love lost between you two," said Judy. She frowned, not quite comfortable with what she was about to do. Yet still she slid the folder over to the polar bear, meeting his eyes as she stopped halfway down the table. "Sadly, that wasn't always the case, was it?"

Koslov's brow creased as he reached out to flip open the folder. The moment his eyes fell upon the first photo he pulled back as if stung, lips curling into a snarl. "Where did you get this!?"

“Savage’s computer,” said Judy, dragging the photo back and turning it so Nick could see. “It was his desktop background.”

The photo was innocent at first glance, to anyone who didn’t know better. It showed a multitude of mammals in college graduation robes in celebration, tossing their hats up and hugging, some even kissing. Near to the front stood a rabbit Judy never would have recognized, were it not for his Arctic blue eyes. Jack Savage had little fur making it through his burn scars back in his college years, and his left arm was an old-fashioned, clunky sort of contraption, something that at times must’ve been more of a hindrance than a help in getting through life. And yet, the smile on his face as he slung his remaining arm over a kneeling Koslov’s neck was heartbreakingly genuine.

“Must’ve been a real doe-killer,” remarked Nick, leaning back in his seat. “Or buck-killer, if that’s what he preferred. I don’t judge.”

“… no,” said Koslov after a moment, audibly restraining his anger. “He never had anyone that I knew of. He was a very… studious, young man, and never showed much interest in such matters as romance. Heh, his obsession with you, Officer Hopps, is probably the closest I’ve ever seen him come to even a crush.”

Judy chose to ignore that, instead spreading photos from the folder across the table, photos of what must have been happy moments in Jack Savage’s life, from birthdays and sports games to museum visits and lavish meals. The college graduation one, however, seemed to have been the last such photo taken. “Chief Bogo mentioned the rabbit kit survivor from Outback Island being placed into foster care, but I wasn’t able to find out anything more on that. You took him in, didn’t you? That’s why you were his connection to the crime lords of Zootopia.”

Koslov didn’t respond, not at first. He reached out across the table, pausing as Judy and Nick both stiffened, before picking the graduation photo and leaning back in his chair to look at it. Whatever remained of his anger died out, replaced by a bitter smile. “It seemed a simple enough request, at first. Mr. Big’s organization has often taken in the less-fortunate children from foster homes. Better work ethic. And I will not lie, I pitied the kit for what he’d gone through, and knew nobody else would take him in for his scars. I’d hoped to… civilize him. You don’t get far in this line of work being a mere animal.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “The guy called himself Jack SAVAGE. I think it’s fair to say you failed.”

Judy groaned and elbowed Nick’s side, eliciting a grunt. Koslov ignored them, setting the photo back down. “It started simple. Deliveries, driving, then minor racketeering, smashing up the stores of smaller mammals that missed payments, helping with cleanup and disposal. Even when he was picking fights with other gangs and pulling off weekend arsons, he was… manageable. He did it for the rush, the power, the fear other mammals felt toward him, and as long as I could provide those things, we stayed as good as father and son.”

“But eventually you couldn’t anymore. What happened?”

The snarl that rippled across Koslov’s features at Judy’s question looked more befitting a Night Howler victim. “Miss White and her posse. Don’t dare ask, I will say nothing on them. I wish to see my darling Boris grow up and have little cubs of his own.”

Nick leaned forward, trying for his easy smile. “Aw, come on, ya big lug. We’re taking everyone else apart, I’m sure you can—”

“I can’t,” said Koslov, glaring Nick down. “I won’t endanger my son in such a manner.”

“Mr. Koslov, please, the ZPD can—”

“You can’t,” said the polar bear, looking to Judy with the sort of half-amused, half-pitying expression she hadn’t seen in years. It made her feel like it was her first day on the job all over again. “Miss White, her people, they are not some gang, some mob, some Rodentian mafia family. They are not a crime to be stopped or an injustice against the world to be avenged. They are as solid and part of the world as… as the city of Zootopia itself. Do not even try, little rabbit.”

“Is that so…” Judy didn’t believe that, and the assertion to not even try, well, anyone who knew her would know that would only make her try harder. But even she could tell from the polar bear’s tone, every word dripping with the same kind of certainty that came with stating the Earth revolved around the Sun, that he would not be budging on the subject any time soon. That was fine. There were other, more pressing matters to attend to.

“Well anyway,” she said as she began gathering up the photos from the table. “I believe that only leaves one major question to ask, and then we’ll be out of your fur.”

Koslov’s gaze narrowed, suspicious. “And what would that be?”

“Why?” Judy let Nick take the lead on this final point, trusting him to handle the all-consuming question better than her when it came to the criminal element. She had her own ideas of what the answer would be, but it would really be best to hear it straight from those it concerned. “Why do all of this? What was the endgame here, ol’ Koslov, ol’ pal? Jacky boy talked a big game of discrediting the ZPD, which yeah, I can see how you crime lords could benefit in the short term, but what about the long term? You gotta walk us through this, big guy, gotta help us out. Why?”

For nearly a minute Koslov sat there in silence, the question hanging over the room like the guillotine’s blade. Judy shared a look with her fox, wondering now if this question was too close to the Miss White issue and would remain unanswered. But then Koslov leaned forward, sliding the graduation photo back across the table to her. “We crime bosses were not the only ones poised to benefit from Jack Savage destroying the ZPD. The timing of this reign of terror was not accidental.”

Looking at the photo again, Judy didn’t know what the polar bear meant at first, but then Nick straightened in the seat beside her, tail bristling and hackles rising as he hissed “Carrots!” Then she looked again, looked harder at everyone in the graduating class. Aside from Savage she saw a moose, two bulls, a pig, a leopard, a—

Judy’s gaze snapped back to the pig. A moment of gears grinding into place, followed by a gasp. “Oh.”

***

Bzzz. “Mayor Swinton? Officers Judy and Nick Wilde-Hopps would like to-no wait, you can’t just barge in there—”

Judy ignored the llama’s pleas and threw the doors to the mayor’s office open, causing the pig across the glass and marble room to jump in her seat. Judy ignored the way her hooves patted frantically at her suit to brush away dust from the paper shredder she’d just been using, remaining silent as she strode toward the desk with clenched fists. Nick at her side was a welcoming presence. “O-oh, Officer, er, Judy! Nick! How wonderful it is to see you!”

Nick’s smile at this was veritably savage as he moved to stand at one side of Swinton’s desk, Judy at the other. “Oh, we’re sure it’s as wonderful as a root canal. Lot’s of pain, and embarrassment, and digging around for what’s ROTTEN, but in the end we all come away the better for it. Right, Carrots?”

“Right, Nick.”

Swinton chuckled, glancing between the pair as she worried the necklace of pearls around her neck. “That’s eh, that’s a good one, Officer Wilde. Do you mind if I call you Wilde still? We’re not really close enough for me to call you Nick, and Wilde-Hopps is such a mouthful—”

“How long have you been in cahoots with Jack Savage and Miss Black?”

This stopped Swinton dead, the look on the pig’s muzzle extremely satisfying to Judy. The expression got even better when Nick laid the graduation photo on the desk in front of her. “Oh Jiminy Cricket…”

“It finally makes sense,” said Judy, leaning with arms folded against the desk. “Paperwork retrieved from Cliffside Asylum places Savage’s earliest plans for these attacks about 15 months ago. Around the same time you first begin making your disparaging remarks about the ZPD to the media.”

“The Wendigo Killer fiasco had just occurred,” said Swinton, looking to regain some standing in the conversation. “The ZPD’s reputation was in tatters anyway, Hopps. It doesn’t take a political genius to figure out continuing to support you would amount to a career suicide!”

At this Nick rolled his eyes and drew a newspaper from his uniform pocket, slapping it to the table next to the photo. “Sure didn’t stop Gazelle and her lead in the polls from the start, now did it? No, you’d had a term as mayor and you wanted more. Unfortunately, you needed just the teensiest bit of help to make sure that happened, didn’t you?”

Swinton sputtered, standing from her seat in, as far as Judy could tell, genuine anger. “Are you honestly suggesting, officers, that I made some kind of… of deal with Savage to make him destroy the ZPD, which I might add was already doing a fine job destroying itself? Or to take out my sole political rival to secure the mayor’s office another term? After everything YOU have done, Officer Hopps, you have the audacity to come in here without even a shred of evidence—”

“Oh I get it,” said Nick, grinning. “Shred of evidence. Because you were just using a shredder. I assume to shred evidence.”

Had Swinton ever turned the glare she now leveled at Nick onto Gazelle, they might’ve had grounds for assault right there. “This is an office, fox. There’s always paperwork to be shredded.”

***

A spark, like lightning, crackling, blasting away the cold. A jolt, convulsions as muscles that had lain dormant for too long began working once more. Mouth opening, drawing breath in a ragged gasp. Eyes opening, Arctic blue glowing in the dark of the freezer.

***

“She has a point there, Nick. However, on the topic of proof…” Judy pulled several papers from a pocket and held them up for Swinton to see. “You might be interested to know that during that reported shooting massacre at Tundratown Truckers, all the computers were destroyed. However, the GPS’s for the vehicles were left untouched, and one of them recorded a trip just last week… right here to City Hall. So, there’s two connections between you and Jack Savage. College, and the delivery company that took the bomb to Sahara Square and started this entire investigation. And wouldn’t you know it, Tundratown Truckers’ computers were all shot up, but their paper records hadn’t been touched, and that included a Proof of Delivery form, signed by one Mayor Swinton.”

“Suffice to say, that was just about enough to get one of these.” Nick held up a search warrant, causing Swinton to blanch. “So, just for fun, let me see if I can guess just how things went down. Savage contacted you for some crazy scheme to destroy the ZPD and secure your second term as mayor. Obviously, though, the ZPD have to be replaced by somebody. Maybe San Dingo’s H.A.W.C agency you’ve been threatening Chief Bogo with the last few days? Then of course, Savage goes and recruits the crime lords with, I’m guessing, the chance to strike mutually-beneficial deals with the new law enforcement regime.”

“What? Where in the world does H.A.W.C.—”

Judy held up her phone. It was opened to a news article, showing a photo of a white-coated wolf in military-style gear. “The wolf leader of H.A.W.C. is announced dead in Zootopia following the death of Jack Savage’s wolf partner. A wolf partner who before showing up here was last seen alive in San Dingo. Even if we didn’t have photos of Miss Black to identify her as the same mammal as Lacross, it’s not the wildest guess to make. Don’t you think, Nick?”

“I do indeed think, Carrots. What do you think, Mayor?”

Swinton looked between the pair for a moment longer, mouth opening and closing as if grasping for anything to say. Finally she slumped back into her seat, resting her head in her hooves. “I think I want my lawyer.”

Judy smiled and high-foured Nick. "I thought you’d say that. Now come on, it’s only a small walk to—”

Nick and Judy’s radios crackled to life at the same instant, making them and Swinton flinch at the sound of shouts, gunfire, and Clawhauser’s frantic voice. “All units, I repeat, all units! Return to the ZPD IMMEDIATELY! We have multiple officers down, civilians dead and wounded, Savage—”

A sudden burst of automatic gunfire, loud enough to make Judy’s ears ring, and the radios went dead.


	17. Chapter 17

The ZPD lobby was in shambles by the time Judy and Nick got back there from City Hall, the glass doors shattered, bullet holes perforating the floor and walls, the display cases for the many awards and trophies earned by Precinct 1 broken and their contents scattered to the floor. Splotches of blood could be seen wherever one turned, though as far as Judy knew everyone who’d been in the lobby had escaped into the crowds they had passed on the way in, awaiting the ambulances.

They found Clawhauser ducked down beside his desk, shakily wrapping bandages over the right side of a shivering corsac fox kit’s head. At the sight of them the cheetah’s eyes lit up. “Nick! Judy! But wait, if you got here fine then it must be safe to move out of the lobby!”

“There are several officers outside keeping watch over those injured,” said Judy, placing a paw on her oldest city friend’s shoulder. Nick stayed above them, dart gun drawn as he kept lookout. “Ambulances are already on the way too. You’re good to go.”

She then turned her attention to the fox kit, grimacing at her tattered shirt and skirt and the bloody dust caked to her before trying for a comforting smile. Kneeling in front of her, she placed a hand on the kit’s shoulder, hoping to still it. “Hey there, little kit. Everything’s going to be okay now, I promise. What’s your name?”

The kit’s one visible eye, a startling shade of gold, stared at her for a long moment, her lips moving as if trying to say something, before finally managing a soft, even for rabbit ears, “Alex.”

Judy nodded, smiling again before looking back up at Clawhauser. “Get little Alex here out to safety. Nick and I will handle things here.”

The sound of gunfire echoing from down a nearby hall made Clawhauser and the fox kit flinch, but Judy perked. “I think that came from… Ben, what happened here? Who attacked us, how many of them are there?”

It took Clawhauser a moment to respond as he struggled to help the civilian to his hooves. “It all happened so fast, but—we thought it was you at first, Judy! He came up the elevator in one of your spare bodysuits and armor. McHorn was down before we knew what was happening. Francine and Grizzoli managed to herd him away from the civilians, but…”

Nick turned toward them, a growl on his lips. “Dang it, Benji, who!?”

Clawhauser swallowed, seeming scared to even say the name. “S-Savage. Jack Savage!”

Judy and Nick shared a look. The fox looked horrified, eyes wide and shoulders hunched. “The guy had some kind of heart restarter in his chest… I hadn’t thought it might activate after so long…”

More gunfire and a pained shout from farther down the same hallway put an end to further discussion. Judy wished Clawhauser luck, checked that her dart gun was loaded, and started across the lobby toward the hallway the noises came from. She didn’t need the soft patter of paw pads or swish of a tail nervously flicking through the to tell her Nick had her back.

They found McHorn slumped against a wall near the elevators, uniform shirt torn off and wrapped around his left knee. The rhino’s eyes were wide and unfocused from the pain, and he didn’t even seem to notice them as they strode past, following the sounds of violence.

Further on and around a corner they found Naylor. The wolf had been shot to pieces while coming out of the bullpen, his bullet-riddled body keeping the blood-splattered door propped open. Straining her ears, Judy couldn’t hear even the slightest hint of a heartbeat coming from him. Only Nick’s hand on her shoulder, trembling as it was, kept her going.

“You think he’s going where I think he’s going?”

“Yeah…”

Another half-minute of careful forward progress, of checking around corners and through doors gun-first, brought them to the doors to the ZPD vehicle lot. An elephant lay near the doors, her right ear shredded, left eye bruised shut, blood dripping from what looked like a bone saw embedded in her right shoulder. “Oh no, Francine!”

The elephant groaned, struggling to sit up as Judy and Nick ran to her side. “Oh… hi, you two… always kinda thought Judy the freakish exception to how hard a rabbit can hit…”

“I could have told you that,” said Nick, trying to lighten the mood and not quite succeeding. “Good thing there are certain facts of biology that no training can overcome, yeah? Poor Jack just couldn’t get to anything vital! Good… good thing you never took my diet advice, r-right?”

Francine let out a laugh that quickly turned into pained wheezing. Judy started forward, almost pulling the bone saw out before thinking better of it and reaching for her radio instead. “To anyone listening, this is Officer Judy Wilde-Hopps. I’m near the ZPD car lot, we’ve got an injured officer here. Elephant, so make sure proper equipment—”

The sound of an engine revving out in the car lot made Judy look to the doors, Nick following a moment later. She bit her lip and looked back up at Francine, only to see the elephant give the faintest of nods. “For everyone lost today, Hopps. The bastard’s got it coming.”

Judy stared for a moment, before nodding and turning away a familiar resolve settling over her as she and Nick strode for the door. It was the same resolve when they had taken down Lionheart, taken down Bellwether, taken down the Wendigo Killer, taken down any number of criminals, thieves, murderers, and kitnappers. “Damn right he does.”

On the count of 3 they threw the doors open and charged out into the ZPD car lot. Immediately Judy had to duck and roll one way and Nick the other as a hail of bullets from a rumbling patrol cruiser two yards ahead peppered the ground around them. As Judy hopped back to her feet she heard Jack Savage’s voice ring out through the concrete structure, loud and guttural. “Catch me if you can, coppers!”

“You can bet we can!” Judy shouted back as she leapt into a sprint toward the patrol cruiser, pulling out a pair of batons from her back as she ran and flipping them to hold them by the long end. Even as the cruiser’s engine roared and tires squealed as it pulled away she kept running, using the tight corners and inability for the escaping vehicle to go too fast as Savage navigated toward the exit to keep even with it, gaining an inch, then another. Then with a scream she lunged forward with all the power she could pack into her rabbit legs and hooked the baton handles onto the cruiser’s rear fender, pulling herself up onto the back of the vehicle in a flash.

“Just like Terminanteater 2,” she said to herself with a grin, before catching sight of Savage aiming a pistol at her through the rear window, the car lot’s exit onto the open road to be seen past him. The rabbit looked half-dead, a rabid gleam in his eyes. She ducked just as the window exploded out, feeling pass over her head close enough to graze the fur.

Then they were out on the open road toward southern Savannah Central, careening toward oncoming traffic. Judy took the opportunity as Savage focused on driving to climb forward, just barely managing to hook her batons to the edges of the shot-out window before a wild swerve around a semi nearly sent her flying.

“WOOO! What a ride!” came Savage’s voice from the driver’s seat to mock her. “Hey, what kind of tunes can these bad boys pick up, Hopps!?”

Judy tried climbing forward again, slipping back down as Savage crashed through a row of lane dividers to get onto a highway that could take them halfway across Zootopia. Even as he did this she could hear him flicking on the radio, giggling to himself as he searched through stations until—

"Primadonna girl, yeah, all I ever wanted was the world!  
Can't help that I need it all,  
The primadonna life the rise, the fall.  
You say that I'm kinda difficult,  
But it's always someone else's fault.  
Gotcha wrapped around my finger, babe,  
You can count on me to misbehave."

“Oh God,” growled Judy. “I hate this song.”

“(Ooh) And I'm sad to the core, core, core  
(Yeah) Every day is a chore, chore, chore  
(Wow) When you give, I want more, more, more  
I wanna be adored!”

The radio on Judy’s belt crackled to life, granting her the blessed distraction from Jack Savage’s off-key singing that she just wasn’t getting from careening double the speed limit the wrong way through traffic. “Carrots! Keep calm, I’m right behind you!”

She glanced behind her to see another patrol cruiser following close behind them, Nick holding the wheel with one hand and his radio with the other. “Hey, beautiful! Fancy meeting you here. You know, Jack Savage is really driving me crazy—”

Judy would have laughed, had Savage not decided at that moment to swerve to the left, bashing a taller giraffe-mobile off the highway. Judy watched the civilian vehicle crash into a backyard pool a dozen feet down, loosing a sigh of relief at catching a glimpse of the driver swimming out to safety before the scene whipped out of view from a turn in the road. Facing forward again, she traded one of her batons for a five-round dart gun. “It’s time to end this.”

The first shot missed Savage by a country mile. The second embedded itself in the driver’s seat headrest. The third hit his forearm with a solid thunk and fell uselessly to the floor of the cruiser. The fourth he batted away with a lazy swipe of his hand, accompanied by “The mosquitoes seem remarkably thick this time of year, don’t they?”

Judy screamed. Before she could fire her final dart at one of Savage’s exposed ears her swerved again, to the right this time and onto an off ramp, practically running over a lemur’s town car in the process. She yelped at the sudden jarring movement, taking the shot forgotten as her single baton dislodged from the broken window and sent her falling backward. Dropping both baton and dart gun, she barely got her legs up and under her in time to kick off the cruiser’s rear hood, giving her just enough horizontal momentum to land (hard) on the hood of Nick’s cruiser instead of under one of its wheels.

“HOLY CARP!”

Judy didn’t need the radio to hear Nick’s swear there. Grinning through the pain of her throbbing shoulder, she let the wind of the speeding vehicle help roll her onto all fours, eyes locking on Savage’s cruiser slowly gaining in distance as her hand grabbed for her radio. “Nick, get me close again. I gotta get back on that car!”

“Hell no,” answered Nick over the radio, the fox going so far as to slow down somewhat to Judy’s aggravation. “That’s not the place to fight him, Carrots. He can send you flying with a hard enough swerve, can aim better than you, and anything stronger than that dart gun you lost would send you flying too.”

She turned to glare at her partner, who somehow kept his steely gaze on the road past her and returned her glare at the same time. “Nick—”

“Judy.”

The use of her real name gave her pause. Before either of them could say anything more, Chief Bogo’s voice came over the radios. “All units, this is Chief Bogo aboard SWAT Heli-1. I am joining the pursuit of Jack Savage. Traffic cam predictors suggest he is en route to the Lionsgate Bridge. All units, drop whatever the hell you are doing and GET TO THAT BRIDGE. Bogo out.”

Judy stared at her radio for a brief second, then looked behind them. Two or three miles off in the distance she could see the ZPD’s main SWAT helicopter tearing through the open sky in their direction. Soon it would be close enough for her to start hearing the beat of its rotary wings.

“Carrots, Lionsgate Bridge…”

“Yeah, I know,” she said, finally accepting that there’d be no stopping Savage on the road. Sliding backward, she carefully swung herself through the passenger side’s lowered window, groaning despite herself as she relaxed onto the seat. “Lionsgate Bridge is only land path to Outback Island. Where Tundratown Truckers made one of their last deliveries. Where all of this started.”

Nick swung the cruiser into a wide turn, following down a narrow backstreet. Just ahead, past Savage’s stolen cruiser, they could see cloudy skies, fog, and water, Zootopia Sound and Lionsgate Bridge only a few blocks off now. “Yes, yes, we can all appreciate the symbolism, but WHY is he heading for Outback Island? Supplies? H.A.W.C. mercenaries lying in wait? A readied escape boat?”

“Good question.” Judy turned around in her seat and grabbed the rabbit and fox-scaled combat shotgun mounted there. “And you know what?” Turning forward again, she opened the glove compartment and grabbed the box of shotgun shells, ignoring Nick’s pointed glances as she loaded one after another. “I’m not going to ask him.”

The next few minutes passed in relative silence, save for Nick’s mumbled swear as Savage reached the bridge before anyone could intercept him and terse radio chatter. He turned to follow after him down the straight shot of a bridge, joining up with two other police cruisers racing down the opposite side of the train tracks that ran down the bridge’s middle. Peering through the growing evening fog,

Judy saw their fellow cars occupied by the Fangmeyers, Grizzoli, and Jarvis. Overhead she heard the THUMP-THUMP-THUMP of the SWAT chopper, flown by Bogo and whoever he had with him.

“We got this,” she said, as much to herself as to Nick beside her. “We got this.”

At only a hair longer than a mile and a half, they reached the far end of the Lionsgate Bridge far sooner than Judy felt comfortable with, as if a drive of that importance should have taken longer. From the fog around them emerged stacks of discarded, rusting train cars for every size of mammal, long-emptied tankers, the back half of a fire truck with the ladder extended to the sky like a withered arm grasping for life. The solid cement and steel of the bridge changed almost at once to gravel made slick by the fog. It kicked up beneath the cruiser wheels, the crashing cacophony nearly deafening after the relative silence of before.

“Because who needs the element of surprise, right?” Nick joked, though it fell flat in the cold gloom around them. Judy responded with a quick chuckle anyway, for his pride if nothing else.

“This is Bogo. Pulling off to sweep the island perimeter for escape boats. SWAT teams and more patrol cars are on their way. Keep safe down there.”

“Keep safe up there,” Judy whispered back, though she didn’t use her radio.

After several more seconds the train tracks led them to a charred, rust-covered husk of a train station that lacked every bit of vibrancy and decoration that characterized the Zootopia Central Station. Its windows were shattered and shuttered, its gates lowered, its doors, at least those Judy could see as they drove closer, shut and barred. She felt her apprehension rise as she counted a dozen vehicles sized for various mammals assembled across that side of the station, Savage’s stolen cruiser among them. “He’s got friends.”

“I’m not sure if a guy like this can even have friends,” said Nick as he pulled to a stop next to a corrugated steel sign that read, all too drearily, ‘Welcome to Outback Island’. “More likely just a gaggle of well-trained…”

Judy had been hopping out of the cruiser, door thrown wide open for cover, but at Nick’s pause she looked back at him. He was halfway out of the driver’s seat and frowning, a look on his face not unlike the one he’d worn years before, getting the idea to use the traffic cams to track what had happened to the savage Mr. Manchas. “Nick? You got something?”

“Maybe. I…” He glanced toward their fellow officers suiting up at their squad cars and hurried to join Judy at the trunk of theirs, open to show off their more specialized gear. “Trains, Carrots. Trains keep popping up.”

The shotgun set aside for Nick to take, Judy slapped a magazine into her custom-order designated marksmammal rifle and paused, thinking back on the case thus far. “Trains… Savage had Strangers on a Train playing on one of the laptops at Cliffside Asylum… and Runaway Train playing in his apartment…”

Nick slipped on his tactical bulletproof vest, the gears in his head visibly turning as he did the straps. “In his broadcast to the city he had three toys with him. A toy truck, a toy boat, and a toy train. If the truck meant Sahara Square and the boat meant the Aquarium…”

Judy almost didn’t secure the straps to her assault helmet as the full magnitude of what they were realizing hit her, focus quickly turning to her helmet’s built-in radio. “Grizzoli, Fangmeyer’s, Jarvis, Chief Bogo. Wilde and I have reason to suspect this place is a tra—”

Two things happened then, almost at once. First came a BOOM and a roaring cacophony of breaking stone and screeching metal, a thundering shockwave of heat and air from behind them that sent Judy and Nick flying against their cruiser’s rear bumper, that swept them up in a whirlwind of dust, that shattered every window and headlight and toppled a nearby crane. Then, Judy’s ears still ringing from the explosion, out from behind every vehicle arrayed between them and the station building popped a mammal in balaclavas and body armor, opening fire on them with the fury of a Rainforest District thunderstorm.

Judy saw the coyote, Jarvis, go down almost immediately, panting hard as he clutched at his perforated right knee. Beside him Grizzoli swore and dragged him back behind cover, before returning fire with his M16A2 assault rifle. The Fangmeyers joined in immediately with covering fire, Judy a moment later, picking off the station's defenders with quick, clean shots the moment they poked their heads out to fire back. She had to clamp down on the sickness curdling in her gut as she did this, the fear of what that explosion might have been. There was a job to do and another one of her ZPD comrades had been hurt. That was enough for her.

"This is Officer Wilde, we are under heavy fire! I count 15—" BANG "—14 assailants! Savage is nowhere in sight! Officer Jarvis is down and our cars are being made into Swiss cheese! We need air support NOW!"

"Chief Bogo here, circling around now to rejoin, expect in 30 secs. SWAT teams previously en route are reporting Lionsgate Bridge destroyed, diverting to acquire air and see vehicles. ETA 15 minutes."

Judy sent a zebra in an upper window of the train station sprawling with a shot between the eyes before swearing and grabbing for her radio. "That’s 15 too late, chief! We’re being torn apart down—”

"RPG!"

Carla Fangmeyer's shout snapped Judy's focus back to the firefight, breath catching as she caught sight of the grizzly bear aiming a military-grade rocket-propelled grenade launcher at the cop car she and Nick were currently crouched behind. She didn't even waste time verbalizing her swear, grabbing her husband by the arm and running with him for the cover of a stack of barrel drums on the opposite side of the island's welcome sign, bullets kicking up gravel all around them.

They'd barely escaped the bullet rain when the surprisingly understated thump of the RPG firing reached them, followed a split-second later by the boom of their cruiser exploding. Judy ducked down and covered her head with her arms, wincing at the rush of heated air and ringing in her ears.

"THAT WAS OUR FOURTH CAR!" shouted Nick far too loudly, pieces of the vehicle in question falling around them. "THAT HAS TO BE A PRECINCT RECORD!"

"Shit," came Adam Fangmeyer's voice over the radio. "Wilde-Hopps, come in, do you copy!?"

"We copy," said Judy as the ringing faded, taking advantage of the change in angle to put a bullet in the RPG operator before he could reload. "Chief, be advised, they have explosive weaponry!"

"Copy that, Hopps. Coming in now."

Even as Judy heard these words the SWAT chopper swung into view from around the station, doors slid open and Bogo kneeling there with a SAW loaded and propped against his shoulder. The buzzing roar as the cape buffalo began unloading on the defenders below, cutting through mammal and vehicle alike as easily as through paper, was the most satisfying sound Judy had heard in a long, long time.

"GOD BLESS AIR SUPERIORITY," shouted Nick beside her. Judy rolled her eyes and fought her smirk down. Taking aim, she put a bullet in the leg of a gazelle trying to escape out a side door, Nick following up with a gut shot to the badger behind her.

***

“This is Dave Dik-Dik, ZNN’s eye in the sky, reporting to you know from what is an unbelievable scene shattering the peace of this fine Zootopia evening. What began as some sort of assault on the ZPD itself, later developing into a frantic car chase through the streets of Zootopia, has culminated in a fierce shootout here, on abandoned Outback Island. The perpetrators, unknown. The cause, unknown. Whether this is truly the end or there is yet more to come, unknown. What is known for certain is that Jack Savage, rumored brother of ZPD officer Bethany Blaine—”

Beth muted the hospital room TV, plastic squeaking as her grip tightened on the remote, barely resisting the urge to throw it out the window. She watched the distant scenes of violence play out in silence on the TV, her heart in her throat at the sight of Jarvis down, one leg shot up, the others doing their best to defend him. She’d been in the same academy class as him.

“Hey, Frostyyyy! I’m back with your favorite, tomato soup…”

Beth turned her ears to Honey in the doorway, but otherwise kept her attention on the live news coverage. A thrill of terror shot through her as one of the police cruisers exploded, sending the red and grey figures behind it running for cover.

Wordlessly, Honey set the bags of food down and went to Beth’s bedside, holding a hand out once she got there. Swallowing, Beth took the offer up, squeezing tight as together they watched a SWAT chopper swing into view of the ZNN camera.

***

As quickly as it had started, the firefight ended, the roar of Bogo’s machine gun falling away into a cold, foggy silence. It was broken only by the thumping of the SWAT chopper’s blades and short, pained huffs of breath from Jarvis as Grizzoli applied pressure to his bullet wounds. Judy poked her head and rifle out from behind the barrels, snapping from one avenue of attack to another in search of any remaining defenders, but if any remained they had fled back into the station and retreated from the windows.

"Officers," came Bogo's voice over the radio, once half a minute had passed, “move in and secure the building. Find Savage and put him down. ETA on backup is 9 minutes with the bridge down.”

“Sir,” responded Grizzoli on the radio, “I’m going to need evac immediately. Jarvis was hit bad and needs better attention than I can give him.”

A moment of quiet, Judy imagining clear as day the cape buffalo mulling over his options as she and Nick picked their way back over to the wreckage of their cruiser to see if anything could be salvaged. Eventually their radios crackled again, Judy instinctively lowering her ears from the downdraft as the chopper hovered lower. “Roger that, Grizzoli. Get yourself and Officer Jarvis ready to depart. Fangmeyers, Wilde-Hopps, I know I’m about to ask much of you, but if Savage is still inside that station then he can’t be allowed to escape and regroup. It’s not something Zootopia can handle.”

Judy knelt beside the cruiser wreckage as Bogo spoke, scavenging whatever ammo clips scattered by the explosion were still usable. She watched out the corner of her eye as the chopper hovered lower, Bogo letting down a rope and harness to the waiting bear and the wolf he supported. “Understood, sir.”

“Yeah, with all due respect, chief,” said Adam Fangmeyer through the radio, he and Carla joining Judy and Nick at their cruiser’s wreckage, “you couldn’t pay us to stay out of there.”

“Then good luck, the lot of you, and don’t do anything stupid.”

"Not going to make a promise I can't keep."

Nick's whisper was low, probably something only Judy was meant to quite make out. She gave him a fleeting smile, reaching out and up to squeeze his shoulder, a gesture he returned before glancing over at Adam. "Hey Fangy, you like asking why we're here, right? I think we've got an answer for you."

"Oh, really?" The wolf took the lead in the march toward the closest of the doors into the train station sized for their range, his UMP aimed square at the doorway. "I wager it's not just some cosmic coincidence?"

"Not at all," said Judy, joining in on the stress-relieving as she took point beside the door. She'd set her rifle aside earlier, preferring her service pistol for the upcoming indoor fighting. She tried remembering for a second exactly when she had traded in her dart gun for it, but found she couldn't. "We are police, and whatever politicians, the media, or damned dirty disgraces to the badge try to say otherwise, It might've been messy getting here, but there's no one I'd rather see or have stand beside me, than the trusty blue of the ZPD."

"Amen," said the wolf, mirroring Judy across the door.

"Testify," said Carla, moving behind her husband and aiming her handgun over his head.

Nick brought the service to a close with two shotgun blasts to the door's hinges and then a swift kick to send it to the ground. "ZPD, FREEZE!"

No answer came, neither bullet nor shout. Judy went in first, sweeping wide with her pistol as the others fell in behind her. The inside of the Outback Island Train Station was as desolate and gloomy as the outside, rusting train hulks resting on the three sets of tracks ahead and to their left, much of the free space now occupied by more barrel drums, by the trash of the most desperate homeless, by stacks of wooden crates bigger than a fox left to rot in the sea air. Judy had thought the building possessed a second floor from the mammals shooting at them from the upper windows, but instead they saw a series of grated metal walkways lining the walls and crisscrossing the length and width of the stadium-sized building. There were staircases leading up to them just to the left, past a series of ticket booth fallen to ruin.

"Fangmeyers," said Judy, keeping her gaze ahead on the daunting labyrinth of debris to navigate, "I want you two up on the walkways, keeping a bird's eye view on things. Nick and I will sweep the main space first, then move on to offices and--"

"It's really not fair, you know."

The station's PA system crackled and spat, Jack Savage's voice echoing hollow and metallic from all around them. Judy was surprised the ancient electronics still worked in a place like that.

"If you think about it, I haven't had a real, complete success since that very first Sahara Square bombing. How embarrassing!"

Nick rolled his eyes. "Oh boy. And here comes the monologuing."

Judy agreed with the sentiment but said nothing, scanning around for a possible source for the ramblings. After a second she spotted an apparent control room halfway along the right-hand wall, where the walkways correlated with a third floor for the building, reachable by a staggered stairway. The lights were on within, brighter than the light fixtures hanging from the railings that did little to dispel the evening gloom.

She motioned for the others to follow and started up the steps. Savage continued his rant over the PA system all the while.

"Hopps and Wilde weren't supposed to return to Zootopia. The Aquarium attack wasn't supposed to fail. Little Fru Fru Big wasn't supposed to go clean and ruin my team up with Zootopia's crime lords. Miss Black wasn't supposed to FREAKING die! Gazelle wasn't supposed to pull a gun on herself! Sweet sister Beth wasn't supposed to FUCKING SHOOT ME! NONE OF US SHOULD EVEN BE HERE, but I guess Plan B's down the damn drain too! So much planning, just to end in the second-worst week of my life EVER."

They reached the split in the stairs and continued up to the third floor where the control room waited, hugging the wall as they ascended. Carla growled, the tiger bristling at Savage's tone. "Oh cry me a damn river..."

Judy motioned for silence, holstering her pistol long enough to sign that with the control room only three yards ahead, they were close enough for a rabbit to hear them coming. If Savage really was in there, at least.

"So really, I'm left with Plan C. That is, 'C for Cut and Run.' But not before this final, beautiful trap. You four all alone, cut off from any help for, oh, 10 more minutes I'd wager, if the beach surprises I set up work right. Plenty of time to kill you and make good my escape. Zootopia shall remember me as a nightmare, fearing every day my return to finish what I started. That's, uh, that's how I'll spin all this to Miss White, anyway, heh."

Judy paused as they came within knocking distance of the door to the train station control room, suddenly struck by the significance of the moment. Through the crack in the lion-sized door she could make out movement, and a quieter echo of the voice echoing from the PA system.

The pause lasted only a moment. Taking a deep breath in and out, she readied the pistol in her grip, shared a final look with her fellow cops around her, and then charged forward to kick the door the rest of the way open. “Give it up, Savage—”

Jack Savage couldn’t give it up. He wasn’t even there. Not at any of the tables or chairs spread out around the control room, not at the fallen-to-pieces juke box in the far corner, not at any of the work stations, not at the microphone for the PA system hooked up near to the bay windows overlooking to station to their left, a cell phone set on loudspeaker sitting on the table right next to it.

More immediately attention-grabbing, of course, were the stacks upon stacks of dynamite.

Judy sagged. “Oh you’ve got to be freaking kidding me…”

***

"Oh, oh good heavens! Um, as viewers at home can see, some sort of explosion has rocked the abandoned Outback Island train station, shattering windows and blowing out a portion of the western wall. From the smoke pouring out, it seems a safe bet that a fire has started within the confines of the station as well, in fact if one looks closely they can see the flames licking the stone where the hole was blasted. Viewers will remember how minutes before a group of ZPD officers identified as Carla and Adam Fangmeyer and Nick and Judy Wilde-Hopps stormed the building, allegedly in pursuit of the still-living Jack Savage—"

Finnick heard a whimper from behind him, the only sound other than the TV in Marian Wilde's living room. Readjusting himself in the matronly vixen's lap, he reached around and took her hand in his, squeezing as much for his sake as for her's. "Don't you worry none, Mary. Judy and our boy Nick can take more than that, you know it."

***

Bonnie Hopps and a dozen other bunnies if varying ages kept their eyes glued to the news broadcast, paying little attention to Stu's terrified mumblings. "Sweet cheese and crackers, I am going to give both of them such a hug when they get home that their grandkits are going to feel it!"

***

Judy was rocked back to consciousness by a coughing fit sending ripples of pain through her body. She hurt everywhere. Her limbs hurt. Her lungs burned. Her eyes stung. Her ears felt like they'd been used as makeshift stress relievers.

"Probably... better than... alternative..."

Rolling first onto her side, then onto all fours, she ignored the prickle of pain in her toes and palms and spit something wet, warm, and Gunky up from her throat onto the ground. After that she drew up whatever dregs of strength remained for the task of opening her eyes and finding out why she felt like she was in an oven. The sight of flames spreading in every direction, scorching the walkways and turning the stacks of crates into eye-searing infernos, probably should have been more worrisome.

"Oh... Everything's on fire..."

The explosion had scattered them all. Ahead a few yards she saw Carla half-buried beneath a pile of broken crates and barrels, Adam working frantically with one arm to dig her free. The other hung at a bad angle from his shoulder. To the left and up she could make out Nick hanging halfway over the stairway's railing, his prosthetic arm missing from the wrist down. And behind her—

"I really hate you, stop getting in my way!"

The roar of the fires had masked Savage's approach. Judy rolled out of the way of a sudden strike and onto her feet, flinching at the fire axe rebounding off the concrete floor. His eyes seemed to glow in the surrounding flames as he turned to her and swung again, shaving off the tips of her whiskers as she just managed to pull her head back in time.

"I've lost my patience, when are you going to decay!?"

She backed away from the next two swings before stepping into the third, grabbing his lead hand and pulling him into the elbow aimed at his gut. As Savage wheezed she delivered a trio of jabs to his face before culminating with a right uppercut that sent an audible crack through the air and a splatter of blood from his nose.

Before Judy could go for another punch Savage shoved with his shoulder for more space, then tried for a backhand swipe it took both of Judy's arms to stop. Both arms then occupied, he swung the flat of his axe into her right kneecap.

CRACK.

She screamed, almost collapsed, Savage's free hand grabbing her throat and lifting the only thing keeping that from happening. The glow of his eyes turned manic as he ignored her fists pounding his arm and strode forward. "I want to throw you out just like my broken TV..."

Judy felt the heat growing against her back, saw his face grow brighter in the light of nearing flames, and struggled harder. Punching what she could reach of his arm and kicking at his chest, glancing harmlessly off the bulletproof vest he'd stolen from her. "D-damn it, Jaclynn Blaine, yo-you can't... win..."

That, at least, gave him pause for a second, smile turning into a scowl. "Don't use that name..."

"F you," she said, fighting for every second she could. "I'll call you wh-whatever I want... because you've lost... no... you never had a cha-chance to win in the f-first place..."

Savage snarled, grip tightening around her neck as he took another step toward the raging flames. "You can't believe that. I have committed atrocities unimaginable! Taken hundreds of lives! Zootopia will remember me, revere my name as the most infamous rabbit of our times! I will not be supplanted by... by a two-bit bunny cop and her fox partner!"

Judy might've laughed, if her windpipe weren't being crushed. As it was, she managed a smile. "Y-yeah, well... we're h-heroes and you're the v-villain, so... which of us'll ge-get a movie about us?"

Savage's eyes grew wide, as if that thought had honestly never occurred to him. Then he screamed, a roar that carried with it not the barest hint of civility as he raised the axe high above his head. "I HOPE YOU DIE IN A FIR—"

A shot rang out and suddenly the axe clattered to the floor, the hand that'd been holding it reduced to a sparking mess of metal, wires, and artificial fur. Savage whirled around, Judy yelping as she was swung through the air, to see Nick awake and on his feet, gun aimed down at the pair of rabbits. "Let. My wife. Go."

In hindsight, they should have seen Savage throwing her AT Nick coming. Watching her husband's eyes widen as she flew toward him, Judy twisted in mid-air to hit the stairway's railing feet-first, planted the briefest of kisses on Nick's muzzle, then kicked off with her good leg. Seeing Savage's eyes widen in the split-second before she hit his gut head-first made so much of that day so worth it.

"OOOOMPH!"

The pair rolled to within inches of the burning crates Savage had come within moments of throwing her into, Judy fighting her way to on top. From there she kept fighting, first panting, then screaming as she punched and punched and punched and punched that damnable muzzle. Every ounce of close quarters and martial arts training she'd put herself through fled before the fury of every hurt Jack Savage had inflicted upon her and her beloved city, the need to turn his head into just a bloody smear on the floor.

"RRRAAAAAAAGGHHH!"

"Carrots! Judy! JUDY!"

And then there was Nick pulling her off the half-comatose rabbit, hugging her, kissing her, telling her that somehow, impossibly, it was over. Judy looked up into her fox's green eyes, at the adoration and relief in them, and then down to Jack Savage sprawled out at her feet, his muzzle an unrecognizable mess of blood and bruising. Only then, accompanied by Adam's shout of joy as Carla tossed away the last few pieces of debris herself, did Judy notice that her fists hurt like Hell. The thought made her laugh, a delirious little giggle that had Nick looking at her funny. Not that she really cared all that much. Like he'd said, it was over.

The sound of distant but nearing police choppers soon came to Judy's attention. As the Fangmeyers hobbled over to join them, Judy turned to the nearest set of doors into the station, a smile coming to her as she leaned on Nick for support. The smile grew bigger as all their radios came on once more, Chief Bogo's voice touchingly panic-stricken. "HOPPS! WILDE! FANGMEYERS! For God's sake, one if you tell me you're alright!"

Carla broke into a laughing fit that quickly dissolved into coughing. Judy took a moment to look the situation over before responding. The building around them was on fire, Nick was sans one prosthetic hand, Adam had one broken arm, Carla bore an uncanny resemblance to a porcupine with the number of wood splinters sticking out of her, and something told Judy that her right leg shouldn't be bending that way. But on the other hand, Savage finally lay before them, visibly alive only by the rise and fall of his chest, so...

"Roger that, chief. Savage is in custody.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left to go now, as heroes take stock of where they now stand.


	18. Chapter 18

Five days passed. Five days of conferences and paperwork, of arrests and arraignments, of hospital visits and grief counselors; of taking measure of the hurt left behind. The remaining crime lords had gone to ground after Jack Savage's capture, not a trace of them to be found no matter how the ZPD pressed the mercs and gang members they had rounded up in their raids. Judy wondered, in the brief hours she wasn't asleep or consumed by the meds they'd given her for her mending leg, if Miss White had disappeared the crime lords, doing away with any loose ends that could possibly lead to the mysterious figure. That certainly seemed the most likely explanation for Swinton being found swinging from a noose by officers come to arrest her, for Koslov turning up one morning in the ZPD holding cells with a bullet between the eyes.

On the sixth day, it rained in the Meadowlands. From her place near the front of the massed police officers, glad for her black raincoat to protect her dress uniform and leg brace, she thought the rain dancing down the rows of gravestones beautiful. In a mournful sense, in the same way as the wail of the nearing bagpipes sent chills up her spine and an ache through her heart. She wished, however unprofessional it might be, for Nick beside her to take her hand in his, if only for a moment.

Finally, the pall bearers emerged into view from beyond the edge of the assembled crowd of mourners, laden with their sacred burdens. A command from Chief Bogo snapped every officer to attention, then into a salute as the two caskets were brought forth to the two open graves awaiting them. Somewhere to her right Judy could hear soft crying from Beth, but said nothing. It was okay. She had cried at her first police funeral as well.

Wolford played Last Post on his bugle as the green, white, and tan Zootopian flags were removed from the caskets, which were then loaded onto the belts that would lower them down into the graves. As her wolf compatriot played the last few notes Judy braced herself, flinching only slightly at the first crack of the rifle volley, managing to stand still for the next two.

Once the last echoes had faded and the silence of the cemetery returned, Bogo issued more commands. The flags from the two caskets were folded, then folded again until they were tightly cinched triangles, whereupon they were carried with the utmost reverence by Adam Fangmeyer and Grizzoli to the grieving family members along the front row. It was about there that everything went blurry for Judy, hot and blurry and shaky. By the time she had managed to get herself back under control and blinked the tears away the officers had returned to the police ranks.

"PARADE!" Bogo's voice carried no tears, nor the age Judy could see creeping into his eyes every day. In that hour at least, before all those teary eyes in need of strength, he was again the stern and powerful police chief he'd seemed when Judy first joined. "AT EASE. STAND EASY."

Judy relaxed alongside her fellows, but only comparatively. There was no real relaxing at a funeral.

From there they watched as Bogo stepped aside for the ancient marten priest, his non-descript black robes in sharp contrast to his long-greyed fur. "Family, friends, brave officers of the law, we are gathered here today to pay final respects to the lives, bravery, and selflessness of Officers John Naylor and Curtis Beltz. Lost to us this past week in a moment of terrible violence."

All had fallen silent as the priest spoke, a deeper silence, noticeable only in that moment's pause for breath. For Judy all sound seemed to go away save for his voice, swept away by the swelling flood of sadness within and around her.

"There comes a time when each of us, young or old, predator or prey, whatever our profession, must ask the hardest question. Why? Why must the innocent, the good, the heroes and protectors, suffer just the same as the evil? Why the grief? Why the pain?"

Judy clenched her fists, fighting off memories of every victim of a crime who had looked at her with eyes asking those very questions. The scars across her face and neck ached, her broken leg throbbing in the cold rain.

"There aren't any promises," continued the priest, bowing his head to the pair of caskets. "Nothing is certain. Only that some get called earlier than we feel they should. They won't ever know the hardship and grief left behind.

"And yet, for every heart now aching, every throat ready to howl in grief and misery, there is a person who was touched by one of these taken souls, a person whose life was made better by knowing them in even the smallest way, a person who will remember them, the good and the bad. And that is a better legacy than we can ever hope for."

He signaled, and with the start of an engine the caskets began lowering into the graves. "And so we commit our fallen fellows to the next land, with a thankful heart--"

Judy watched the caskets lower, now even the priest's words lost to her as she grieved, and thought. There had been so many times in the past where she'd skirted death, waved to it in passing, dared it to seek her. Not only the flooding of the Aquarium or the fight against Miss Black or the shootout with Jack Savage's mercs, either. From that very first moment of truly representing her badge, chasing down Weaselton and saving Fru Fru’s life, the possibility of someone’s death had been with her. And every time she thought Zootopia had thrown the worst it could at her, there came something, some mammal, worse. Sooner or later, she somehow knew, it would be her or Nick in one of those graves, being spoken of with reverence they could never earn.

And yet, as the service drew to a close and those gathered began to disperse, Judy felt Nick take her left hand in his, a sudden spot of warmth among all the cold. Something in her heart lifted and she found herself about to smile despite it all. The fear wouldn’t drive her from Zootopia. Not again.

“Come on,” said Nick, turning from the two graves as workers filled in the dirt. “Let’s walk.”

They walked, keeping hand in hand as they did, sparing words with those they passed by, making promises to meet up later for drinks, but mostly keeping in silence. They walked with no true aim or destination, and as they did Judy found herself reading the gravestones they around them, wondering at the lives of Zootopia generations past. It was such a large cemetery. They could walk for an hour and not come within yards of the wrought-iron fence surrounding it.

10 minutes into the walk, the rain had all but died off, the clouds above starting to break and let down patches of sunlight. Judy considered suggesting they start making their way to their ZPD cruiser when a new sound caught her attention. Stopping, she perked her ears and turned in place, scanning for the source of the soft, broken breathing. "Nick, you hear that? Sounds like a child."

A frown crossed his face and he too began to look around, eventually pointing forward and to the far left. "Three rows that way, near that Rowan tree."

Judy had to take two steps to the left to see where Nick was pointing, a little bit of her heart breaking when she did. A corsac fox kit sat crouched beneath the tree's outstretched branches, pants and shirt smeared with mud as she stared at a fresh grave with one good eye. The other was hidden beneath heavy layers of bandages. "Oh..."

"There've been too many funerals the last few days," said Nick, starting forward. "Come on."

The kit's ears perked for a second as they walked over, but she remained staring ahead at the grave. When they drew close Judy knelt down, saying nothing at first as she looked between the kit and the gravestone. "Hi, there. I remember you from the ZPD. Alex, right? Our friend Clawhauser was fixing you up."

Nothing at first, until the kit gave a jerky nod. Judy bit her lip and looked up at Nick, who seemed just as nervous as her. Sighing, she reached out and carefully placed a hand on the kit's back, frowning as she flinched. "It's hard saying goodbye, isn't it?"

Another nod, that gold eye looking over at her now. "I know I shouldn't have run off from my... my case worker, b-but I was in the ho-hospita-ta-tal for the f-funeral, and she wouldn't bring me up here..."

Nick knelt down on the kit's other side, giving a smile that said to all who saw it, "I can relate." Judy, knowing the story behind his lack of father, knew that he really could. "Bad case worker, huh? I’m sorry to hear that, Alex. No other family to take you in? Aunts or uncles or...?"

"Nobody that wants me," she spoke, voice cracking. "Not as I-I am..."

Judy was a rabbit. And even for rabbits, the Hopps clan valued family more than anything. That part of her recoiled in disgust upon hearing this. The cop part of her, the part that had grown in Zootopia, been hardened by the city, was saddened but not surprised. Family could find all sorts of reasons to not want each other. And for foxes at least, once you got into the foster care system…

Sighing, Judy looked up from the kit to meet eyes with Nick, recognizing the look on his muzzle. Neither of them said anything at first, neither needing to, Judy knowing what her husband was thinking and Nick knowing what his wife was thinking.

“There’s not enough space at your mother’s place.”

“There’s always room with the Hopps clan.”

“That’s so far away.”

“At a time like this, getting away is what she needs. We were talking ‘bout a vacation after everything settled down.”

Judy couldn’t think of any further arguments. Wasn’t sure she wanted to, either. Giving him the victory for the moment, she stood and offered the kit her hand. “Well, Alex, if you’re ready to go, my partner and I will take you back to your case worker and see if we can get this all sorted out. Cop’s honor.”

She didn’t know if it was something she’d said, or her tone of voice, or her exchange with Nick, but something lightened in the kit’s eye as she looked at the offered hand. Swallowing, she took it, offering no resistance as Judy helped her to her feet. “There we go. Come on, our car’s this way.”

“Th-thanks…” the kit sniffled, rubbing at her eye before giving a shaky smile. “Thanks.”

Nick took Alex’s other hand, smiling over the kit at Judy. Judy smiled back, saying nothing as they started for the cemetery exit. By then the clouds were mostly gone, the grounds bathed in sunlight and warmth. It looked like they had good days ahead of them.

Judy knew there were still problems out there awaiting them, that the bright day wasn’t quite the truth. Miss White and her people still lurked, waiting for another chance at Zootopia. And with all the old crime lords gone, the city was ripe for new criminals to surge in for the top spot. But those were troubles she was ready to handle when they came, as long as she had Nick at her side.

***

“You look like you’ve just been to a funeral. Is anything the matter?”

Beth ignored the remark, turning to smile as best she could with her mouth scars at the ZPD officer beside the hospital room door. “Snarlof, would you mind giving me a moment? Maybe go see if Jarvis would like some coffee?”

The polar bear hesitated a moment, looking between Beth and the occupant of the hospital bed he’d been assigned to guard. Beth brightened her smile, despite the pain in her cheeks, and drew a 100-dollar bill from her wallet. Then Snarlof sighed, grabbing the money and turning away. “You’ve got five minutes, little Blaine.”

Beth said nothing, waiting until the door clicked shut before turning back around and dropping her smile. Jack Savage had seen better days. His prosthetic limbs had all been removed, his head a mass of bandages and tape, everything else fixed in place with as many straps and chains as they could attach to a hospital bed. The smell of urine and crusting blood permeated the air around him, signaling to Beth the hospital staff was giving him the bare minimum of attention. “Hmm. You look like you’re going to a funeral.”

The rabbit barked out a laugh, though only one, even that seeming forced for him. “Well, we all have a funeral somewhere ahead of us. And quite frankly, I look forward to mine. I am… tired. And I’m hurting just… everywhere. It will be good, I think, to rest…”

“You’re in luck then,” said Beth, stepping closer and folding her hands in front of her. “You get that, and the infamy you’ve always wanted. The first use of the death penalty in Zootopia in decades. Lethal injection. Then they’re going to split open your head to study your brain, see how in the hell you came back without being a vegetable. Some ambitious grad student’s probably going to write their thesis on you, years from now.”

“Hrmm. Well, I suppose it’s something.”

“Yeah…”

Silence. More than Beth had planned for. She coughed, sweeping her gaze over the hospital room in all its bareness, noting with some amusement that the window had been boarded up. When she looked back at Jack she saw he was still looking at her, expression bare as his room. “What?”

“You’re still here. You told me all you could have reasonably come here to tell me, so… what do you want? Do you think our… blood relation might help you appeal to my, heheh, better nature? Get you the scoop on Miss White and her cronies? Give you that final, little bit of fame over our dearest Judy?”

Beth opened her mouth, closed it, clenched her fists as she stamped down on that sore spot. “To Hell with Judy, Miss White, and anything else. I just want to know… I need to know… Plan B, was it…”

“You?” Jack’s blank expression broke, a smile curling across his face. “Plan B. B for Beth. Alright, you got me, not that it does you any good. Heh. Maybe… maybe I got it in my head to take this young, eager, ambitious little sister of mine and… break her. Push that need for fame that we share to its natural conclusion. Almost did it, too. I saw the way you held your gun at the rally. You would’ve shot Gazelle if she hadn’t pulled that gun on herself, right?”

Beth said nothing at first, simply focusing on her breathing as she regarded the sad, broken little monster in front of her. Nothing like anything she had imagined.

“You know,” she managed at last, forcing her fists to unclench, “it’s funny, but you already got to me. Years ago, before any of this was close to happening.” The frown on Jack’s face, the clear fact that he didn’t understand what she meant, made Beth smile. “You, and those 49 other siblings, were the reason I became a cop. To stop the kind of monsters that took you and, it turns out, that you became. To, unlike you, make the world a better place.”

“Feh. As if the world could ever be made good.”

Beth sighed and shook her head. “And that’s where I’ve outgrown you, thanks entirely to Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. You know what they’ve taught me, brother?”

It was Jack’s turn to remain silent. She didn’t mind, pressing on all the same. “It doesn’t matter so much if we can make the world better, as long as we try to make the world better. Judy gave a pretty good speech on it years ago, you should give it a listen. I only regret, Mr. Jack Savage, that you never had the chance to try.”

“… no,” the rabbit in the hospital bed said at last, turning his gaze from her to the ceiling. “I suppose I didn’t. Goodbye, sister. Be careful of who you trust. Being a cop, I’ve heard, is dangerous work.”

Beth turned and left. Outside she found Honey waiting alongside an antsy Officer Snarlof. The polar bear rushed back into the hospital room once she was clear of the door, leaving badger and hare alone to regard each other.

“So,” said Honey, fiddling with the pockets of her cargo pants, “uh… everything squared away? It’s over?”

Beth turned to regard the door to Jack Savage’s room a final time, before nodding and reaching to take one of Honey’s hands in her own. “Yeah, it’s over. For now, at least. Come on, ZPD’s meeting at Tod & Copper’s, and I’m not missing Chief Bogo buying the first round.”

***

Gazelle walked into the mayor’s office, pausing for a moment to stare at the ceiling fan from which Swinton had been found hanging. Making a mental note to have it removed first chance she got, she pressed the wrinkles out of her crimson business dress and strode the length of the room to her new desk. She had assumed the role of mayor in all but name in the days since Swinton’s apparent suicide over having her dirty dealings discovered, and tomorrow it would be made official in the eyes of Zootopia.

“And then, finally we can start doing some real good for this city, and put the horrors of the past behind us.”

Sitting down in the mayor’s chair, Gazelle set her purse down on the desk, pulling from it an old-fashioned tape recorder. Recovered, with the calling in of some favors, from the ZPD evidence lockers. Checking that she was indeed alone in the room and that she’d closed the door behind her, she hit play on the recorder. The metallic voice of Jack Savage echoed out, sending shivers down her spine.

_“Survive? With the great equalizer. Fire. I stole into their camp as they slept and I stole their fire. With it I set the entire island ablaze. I burned every inch of it to ash. The hunters. The animals. The bones of my family. None survived but a tiger, an antelope, and a—”_

Gazelle hit stop, rewound, and erased the tape. Stuffing the recorder back into her purse, she leaned back in the chair and rolled it around to regard Zootopia through the spacious windows. The storm clouds were long gone, the city in all its diversity bathing now in the golden rays of the setting sun. Nearly 50 million lives for her to protect, care for, and serve. A daunting task that none of the previous mayors were at all qualified for.

“Start doing some real good indeed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends the middle chapter of the Better World trilogy. It had its ups and downs and not much actually went as I expected it to, but overall I enjoyed writing it. I hope the rest of you enjoyed reading it, and are as excited for the final story as I am.
> 
> I feel somewhat that I got a little too far away from the core Zootopia tone here for my liking. A little too dark, bloody, and grim. And, as some very cool readers helped me notice, there are some rather distracting leaps of logic, especially toward the end. As such, I will be taking more time on writing the next story, hopefully giving it the proper care and attention it and this awesome fandom deserves.
> 
> Until then, take care, all!


End file.
